The origin of the Spring Festival
The Spring Festival is the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, also known as the lunar year, commonly known as "New Year". This is China's folk the most grand, the most lively festival, commonly known as the "New Year's Day", the traditional name for the New Year, the New Year, the new year, but also known as the verbal year, celebrate the new year, the New Year. Chinese people have been celebrating the Spring Festival for more than 4,000 years. Chinese people have been celebrating the Spring Festival for more than 4,000 years. In modern times, people set the Spring Festival on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, but the New Year is usually not over until at least the fifteenth day of the first month (Shangyuan Festival). In folklore, the Spring Festival traditionally refers to the period from the Lunar New Year's wax festival or the Zao festival on the 23rd or 24th day of the Lunar New Year until the 19th day of the first lunar month.
Origin of the festival
There are many stories about the origin of the Spring Festival, among which there are several representative ones. The Spring Festival originated from the wax festival, from witchcraft rituals, from ghost festivals and so on. One of the most widely accepted is that the Spring Festival emerged from the period of Yu and Shun.
One day, more than 2,000 years ago, Shun succeeded to the throne of heaven and led his men to worship heaven and earth. Since then, people have taken this day as the first day of the year. This is said to be the origin of the Lunar New Year, later called the Spring Festival.
Time Evolution
The Spring Festival used to be also called New Year's Day, which was on the first day of the first month. However, the date set for the first month of the Chinese calendar was not consistent throughout the ages:
The Xia Dynasty used Mengchun (i.e., the first month of the lunar year) as the first month.
The Shang Dynasty used the month of Lunar New Year (December) as the first month.
After the unification of the six kingdoms by Qin Shihuang, the first month was October, and the Qin calendar was used in the early Han Dynasty.
In the first year of Emperor Wu's reign, 104 B.C., astronomers Lok Ma-te, Deng Ping, and others formulated the "Tai Chou Calendar", which changed the original October as the first day of the year to Beng Chun as the first day of the year, which was basically improved to the lunisolar calendar (i.e., Chinese lunar calendar) that we use today, and Lok Ma-te was also known as the "Elder of the Spring Festival". Since then, China has been using the summer calendar (the lunar calendar, also known as the lunar calendar) to celebrate the year until the end of the Qing Dynasty, a period of 2080 years.
The official naming of the Lunar New Year as the Spring Festival came after the Xinhai Revolution. During the Beiyang government of the Republic of China, as it was then necessary to switch to the solar calendar, in order to distinguish between the lunar and solar festivals, Yuan Shikai defined New Year's Day as January 01 in the Western calendar, and renamed the first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar as the Spring Festival.
The origin and customs of the Spring Festival
1, paste the Spring Festival couplets. Chunbai Lian also known as "door to", "couplets", "peach symbols", etc., is a kind of couplets, because in the Spring Festival posted, and so named. It is a unique form of literature in China, which depicts the background of the times and expresses good wishes in neat, pairwise, concise and exquisite words. Every Spring Festival, no matter in the city or in the countryside, every family has to choose a big red Spring Festival couplet to be posted on the door, adding a festive atmosphere to the festival.
2, stickers. Spring Festival hanging stickers in urban and rural areas is also very common, thick black colorful paintings to thousands of families added a lot of prosperity and joy of the festive atmosphere. New Year paintings are an ancient folk art in China, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs, and holding their hopes for the future. New Year's paintings, like spring scrolls, originated from the "God of the Door".
3. New Year's money. New Year's money (in Guangdong is called "Baili is") is sent by the elders to the younger generation, some families are after the New Year's Eve dinner, everyone sitting at the table is not allowed to go, and so everyone is finished eating, by the elders sent to the younger generation, and encourage their children and grandchildren in the new year to learn to grow up and do well. Some people are parents in the night when their children are asleep, put under their pillows to give the New Year's money, reflecting the elders of the care of the younger generation and the younger generation of respect for the elders, is an integration of ethical relations between the family of folklore activities.
4, the year-end vigil
New Year's Eve is one of the most important New Year's Eve activities, the custom of the year-end vigil has a long history. The earliest records are found in the Western Jin Dynasty Zhou Zhi's "Land and Customs": New Year's Eve night, each with the gift, known as "feed the year"; wine and food invited, known as the "other year"; young and old get together to drink, wishing to complete, known as the "sub-year"; all night, everyone is the most important activity. "
The first time I saw this is when I was a young man and I had to wait for the day to dawn, so I called it the "New Year's Eve".
"One night even double the year, five nights divided into two days", New Year's Eve, the whole family gathered together, ate the New Year's Eve dinner, light up candles or oil lamps, sitting around the fireplace chatting, waiting for the time to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, the all-night vigil, symbolizing all the evil plague and epidemic according to the run drive away, looking forward to a new year of good luck. This custom gradually prevailed, to the early Tang Dynasty, Tang Taizong Li Shimin wrote a "year-keeping" poem: "cold resignation from the winter snow, the warmth of the spring wind". Until today, people are still accustomed to the New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.
Anciently, there are two meanings of year-end vigil: the elderly year-end vigil for the "resignation of the old year", there is the meaning of the treasure of time and light; young people year-end vigil is to extend the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the time of the transition between the old and new year is usually the middle of the night.
5, firecrackers
Chinese folk "open door firecrackers" said. That is, the arrival of the new year, the first thing that families open the door is to set off firecrackers, to beep, bla bla bla firecrackers to get rid of the old and welcome the new. Firecrackers is a Chinese specialty, also known as "firecrackers", "cannonballs", "firecrackers". Its origin is very early, so far has a history of more than two thousand years. Firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, is a kind of festival entertainment, can bring people joy and good luck. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers is more and more widely used, varieties and colors are also increasingly numerous, every major festival and joyous celebration, and marriage, building, opening, etc., are to set off firecrackers in order to show the celebration, figure a good luck. Now, Hunan Liuyang, Guangdong Foshan and Dongyao, Jiangxi Yichun and Pingxiang, Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other areas is China's famous hometown of firecrackers, the production of firecrackers colorful, high-quality, not only sells well across the country, but also exported to the world.
6, New Year's Day
The first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dressed neatly, go out to visit friends and relatives, each other New Year's Day, wishing good luck in the coming year. Worship a variety of ways, some of them are the same patriarch led a number of people to go door to door to pay tribute to the New Year; some colleagues invited a few people to pay tribute to the New Year; there are also get together to congratulate each other, known as the "group worship". Because of the time-consuming and labor-intensive door-to-door New Year's greetings, some of the upper class and the scholarly community used the posters to congratulate each other, which developed into the "New Year's Pieces" later on.
The Chinese New Year, the late generation should first pay tribute to the elders, wishing the elders a long life and well-being, the elders can be prepared beforehand the New Year's money to the elders, it is said that the New Year's money can be pressed to stop the evil spirits, because the "age" and the "spirit" consonant, the elders get the New Year's money can be a year of peace and security. It is said that New Year's money can keep evil spirits at bay, because "year" and "spirit" sound alike. There are two kinds of New Year's money, one is a colorful rope threaded and braided into the shape of a dragon, placed at the foot of the bed, which is recorded in the "Yanjing Yearly Record"; the other is the most common, that is, wrapped in red paper by the parents of the money given to the children. New Year's money can be rewarded in the evening after the New Year's greetings in public, can also be in the New Year's Eve when the child is asleep, by the parents secretly placed under the child's pillow. Now the elders for the younger generation to send the custom of New Year's money is still prevalent.
8, New Year's Eve dinner
New Year's Eve dinner, is one of the customs of the New Year's Day, also known as the New Year's Eve dinner, New Year's Eve dinner, reunion dinner, etc., refers to the end of the New Year's Eve of the whole family dinner. New Year's Eve dinner originated from the ancient year-end rituals, worship of gods and ancestors after the reunion dinner. The New Year's Eve dinner is the highlight of the year before, not only colorful, but also very meaningful. Before eating the New Year's Eve dinner, the gods and ancestors are worshipped, and the meal is served only after the worship ceremony is completed. On the table there are usually chickens (which means to have plans), fish (which means to have more money every year), oysters and black beans (which means to have a good market), hairy vegetables (which means to be rich), bean curd bamboo (which means to be rich), lotus root (which means to be smart), lettuce (which means to have a good fortune), and garlic (which means to know how to make calculations), etc., for the sake of good luck. The Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is a family reunion dinner, which is the most sumptuous and important dinner at the end of the year.