The traditional festivals in China are diverse in form and rich in content, and they are an integral part of the long history and culture of our Chinese nation. The formation of traditional festivals is a process of long-term accumulation and cohesion of the history and culture of a nation or country. The festivals listed below all developed from ancient times. From these festivals and customs that have been passed down to this day, we can clearly see the wonderful pictures of the social life of ancient people.
The origin and development of festivals is a process of gradual formation, subtle improvement and gradual infiltration into social life. Like the development of society, it is the product of the development of human society to a certain stage. These festivals in ancient China are related to Otawa astronomy, calendar, mathematics, and the solar terms later divided. This can be traced back to Xia Xiaozheng and Shangshu at least in the literature. By the Warring States period, the 24 solar terms divided in a year were basically complete, and the traditional festivals later were all closely related to these solar terms.
solar terms provide preconditions for the emergence of festivals. Most festivals have already begun to appear in the pre-Qin period, but the richness and popularity of customs still need a long development process. The earliest custom activities were related to primitive worship, superstition and taboo; Myths and legends add a bit of romance to the holiday; There is also the impact and influence of religion on festivals; Some historical figures are endowed with eternal commemoration and infiltrated into festivals, all of which are integrated into the content of condensed festivals, giving China festivals a deep sense of history.
By the Han Dynasty, the main traditional festivals in China had been finalized. It is often said that these festivals originated from the Han Dynasty, which was the first great development period after the reunification of China. The political and economic stability, science and culture had made great progress, which provided good social conditions for the final formation of festivals.
Festivals developed in the Tang Dynasty, and have been liberated from the primitive atmosphere of worship and taboo mystery, and turned into entertainment etiquette, becoming a real festive occasion. Since then, festivals have become cheerful and festive, rich and colorful, and many sports and pleasure activities have appeared, which soon became a fashion. These customs have continued to develop and endure.
it is worth mentioning that, in the long history, scholars and poets in the past dynasties have written many famous works for festivals. These poems are well-known and widely praised, which makes the traditional festivals in China permeate with profound cultural connotations, wonderful romance, elegance and elegance.
China's festivals have strong cohesion and extensive inclusiveness. When the festivals are celebrated, the whole country will celebrate together, which is in the same strain as our nation's long history and is a valuable spiritual and cultural heritage.
what are introduced here are only some big traditional festivals of the Han nationality. China is a multi-ethnic country, and all ethnic groups have their own cultural customs and numerous ethnic festivals, which are a cultural treasure to be explored.
Introduction to the Spring Festival
The Spring Festival is the first day of the first lunar month, also known as the lunar year, commonly known as "Chinese New Year". This is the most grand and lively traditional festival among Chinese people. The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors at the beginning and end of the Yin and Shang Dynasties. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the first day of the first month was called Yuanri, Yuanchen, Yuanzheng, Yuanshuo, New Year's Day, etc., commonly known as the first day of the first month. In the Republic of China, it was changed to the Gregorian calendar. The first day of the Gregorian calendar was called New Year's Day, and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was called the Spring Festival.
The Spring Festival is coming, which means that spring is coming, Vientiane is reviving, and the new sowing and harvesting season is about to start. People have just passed the long winter when the plants and trees are dying in the ice and snow, and they have long been looking forward to the day when spring blooms. When the new year comes, it is natural to welcome this festival with joy and singing.
For thousands of years, people have made the celebration of the New Year's custom extremely colorful. Every year, from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to the 31th, people call this period "Spring Festival Day", also known as "Dust-cleaning Day", which is a traditional habit of our people before the Spring Festival.
Then, every household prepares the New Year's goods. About ten days before the festival, people are busy shopping, including chicken, duck, fish, tea, wine, oil sauce, roasted seeds and nuts in the north and south, and fruit with sugar bait. They should also prepare some gifts for visiting relatives and friends during the Chinese New Year, and children should buy new clothes and hats to wear during the Chinese New Year.
Before the festival, a New Year message in red paper and yellow letters should be pasted on the front door of the house, that is, Spring Festival couplets written in red paper. Colorful New Year pictures with auspicious meanings are posted in the house, beautiful window grilles are cut out by ingenious girls and pasted on the windows, red lanterns are hung in front of the door, and the characters of fortune, door gods and so on can be pasted upside down, and passers-by are blessed when they think of it. All these activities are to add enough festive atmosphere to the festival.
Another name for the Spring Festival is Chinese New Year. In past legends, Nian was an imaginary animal that brought bad luck to people. New year's eve. Trees are withered, and grass is not born; After the new year, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How can the year pass? It is necessary to use firecrackers, so there is the custom of burning firecrackers, which is actually another way to set off the lively scene.
The Spring Festival is a joyful and peaceful festival, and it is also a day for family reunion. Children who leave home should go home to get together during the Spring Festival. The night before the Chinese New Year is the 31th night of the twelfth lunar month, which is also called New Year's Eve and reunion night. At the turn of the old and the new, observing the new year is one of the most important activities. On New Year's Eve, the whole family stays up all the time, gets together and drinks, and enjoys family happiness. In the northern region, it is customary to eat jiaozi on New Year's Eve. jiaozi's practice is to mix noodles first, and the word harmony is the combination. Jiaozi's dumplings are homophonic, which means to get together, and also means to make friends at a younger age. In the south, there is the habit of eating New Year's cakes, which are sweet and sticky, symbolizing the sweet life and step by step in the new year.
When the first cock crow rings, or the New Year bell strikes, firecrackers are ringing in the streets, and the noise keeps coming and going, and the new year begins. Men, women and children all wear festive costumes. First, the elders in the family are given New Year greetings, and children are given lucky money, having a reunion dinner. On the second and third days of the second year, they begin to visit their relatives and friends, pay new year greetings to each other, and say some congratulations and new happiness.
The warm atmosphere of the festival not only permeates every household, but also fills the streets and alleys of various places. In some places, there are customs such as lion dancing, playing dragon lanterns, performing social fires, visiting flower markets and visiting temple fairs. During this period, lanterns were all over the city and tourists were all over the street. It was very lively and unprecedented, and the Spring Festival didn't really end until after the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month.
The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han nationality, but more than a dozen ethnic minorities, such as Manchu, Mongolian, Yao, Zhuang, Bai, Gaoshan, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong and Li, have also had the custom of the Spring Festival, but the form of the festival has its own national characteristics and is more meaningful.
January 1st: New Year's Day
(The word "New Year's Day" originated from the poem "Jieya" written by Xiao Ziyun, a Liang native in the Southern Dynasties: "New Year's Day with Four Spirits, Long Life, Today". Yuan is the beginning, the first meaning; Dan is a knowing word, with the "sun" above representing the sun and the "one" below representing the horizon. The sun rises from the horizon, symbolizing the beginning of the day. New Year's Day is the first day of the year.
Gregorian calendar on October 1 is recognized as New Year's Day in the world today. Chinese New Year's Day dates are not consistent. For example, the Xia Dynasty is the first day of the first month; Shang dynasty was on the first day of December; The Zhou Dynasty is on the first day of November, and so on. On September 27th, 1949, the first plenary session of China People's Political Association adopted the "A.D. Chronology Law", and designated October 1 of the Gregorian calendar as New Year's Day. )
The 15th day of the first lunar month: Lantern Festival
(also known as "Shangyuan Festival", that is, the 15th day of the first lunar month. It is an important traditional festival in China. In ancient books, this day is called Shangyuan, and its night is called Yuanye, Yuanxi or Yuanxiao. The name Yuanxiao has been used ever since. Because Lantern Festival has the custom of putting up and watching lanterns, it is also known as "Lantern Festival" among the people. In addition, there are customs such as eating Yuanxiao, walking on stilts and solve riddles on the lanterns. The ancient calendar in China is closely related to the phases of the moon. On the fifteenth day of each month, people greet the first full moon night of the year, which is naturally regarded as an auspicious day. As early as the Han Dynasty, the fifteenth day of the first month has been used as a day for offering sacrifices to God and praying for blessings. Later, the ancients called the fifteenth day of the first month Shang Yuan, the fifteenth day of July Zhong Yuan and the fifteenth day of October Xia Yuan. At the latest, in the early Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sanyuan was the day to hold a grand ceremony. Of the three elements, Shangyuan is the most valued. Later, the celebrations of Zhongyuan and Xiayuan were gradually abolished, while Shangyuan was enduring. )
the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day: cold food
(a festival in the old customs, the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day [two days before Qingming Festival]. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhong Er, the son of the State of Jin, who had been exiled for many years, returned to China and acceded to the throne [that is, Jin Wengong], honoring the courtiers who died with him, except for the introduction. Jie Zhitui then lived in seclusion with his mother in Mianshan [now southeast of Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province]. When Jin Wengong learned of this, he wanted to raise the reward. He found Mianshan, but he couldn't find him, so he wanted to burn the mountain to force him out. However, Jiezhi couldn't stick to it, and as a result, both mother and son were burned to death. Jin Wengong therefore stipulates that people are forbidden to cook on fire on this day every year to express their mourning with cold food. Later, the custom of eating cold food and sweeping graves on the day of cold food was formed. )
April 5th: Tomb-Sweeping Day
(Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional festival in China, and it is also the most important festival for offering sacrifices to ancestors and sweeping graves. Grave-sweeping is commonly known as going to the grave and offering sacrifices to the dead. Most of the Han people and some ethnic minorities visit graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day. According to the old custom, when sweeping graves, people should bring food, wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to their relatives' graves, then incinerate the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, fold a few green branches and insert them in the graves, then kowtow and worship, and finally eat food and drink and go home. The poem Qingming by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said: "It rains in abundance during the Qingming Festival, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Ask the local people where to buy wine and worry? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village. " Write the special atmosphere of Tomb-Sweeping Day.
Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known as an outing festival, is between April 4th and 6th every year according to the solar calendar, which is the season when the spring is bright and the vegetation is green, and it is also a good time for people to have a spring outing [called an outing in ancient times], so the ancients had the custom of going for an outing in Qingming and carrying out a series of sports activities. )
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month: Dragon Boat Festival
(The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival. The real name of "Dragon Boat Festival" is "Duanwu", which means the beginning. "Five" and "noon" are homophonic and universal. It is an ancient festival in China. After Qu Yuan
, the earliest patriotic poet in ancient China, was exiled by slanderers, he witnessed the increasingly corrupt politics of Chu State, and was unable to realize his political ideal and save the endangered motherland, so he threw himself into the Guluo River to die. Since then, in order to prevent fish and shrimp from eating their bodies, people have kneaded glutinous rice and flour into cakes of various shapes and put them into the heart of the river, which became the source of eating zongzi and fried cakes during the Dragon Boat Festival. This custom has spread abroad. )
The seventh day of the seventh lunar month: Qixi Valentine's Day
(The night of the seventh lunar month is called "Qixi". According to Chinese folklore, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl met at the Queqiao Bridge in Tianhe this night. Later, there were customs such as women asking Vega for a needle on this night. The so-called begging for cleverness means threading a needle at Vega with colored thread in the moonlight. If you can pass through seven needle holes of different sizes, it will be "clever". The farmer's proverb says, "The seventh day of July is clear and bright, and the sickle is grinded to cut the rice." It's time to sharpen the sickle and get ready to harvest early rice. )
August 15th of the lunar calendar: Mid-Autumn Festival
(August 15th of the lunar calendar is in the middle of autumn, so it is called "Mid-Autumn Festival". At night, the moon is full in Gui Xiang, which is regarded by the old customs as a symbol of happy reunion. It is a festival to enjoy the moon by preparing all kinds of fruits and cooked food. Eat moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival. According to legend, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, in order to overthrow the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty, the broad masses of people wrote the date of the uprising on a piece of paper and put it in the stuffing of moon cakes, so as to secretly pass it on to each other and call on everyone to revolt on August 15th. Finally, on this day, a nationwide peasant uprising broke out, overthrowing the decadent Yuan Dynasty rule. Since then, the custom of eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival has spread more widely. )
the ninth day of the ninth lunar month: Double Ninth Festival
(the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. In ancient China, nine was the sun, and September 9 was the sun of the cloudy moon, hence the name "Chongyang". According to legend, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Runan people were in the shadow, they heard Fei Changfang tell him that there would be a great disaster in Runan on September 9, so they quickly asked their families to sew a small generation, put cornus in it, tie it on their arms, climb the mountain and drink chrysanthemum wine, so as to take refuge. On this day, the whole family climbed the mountain and went home at night. Sure enough, all the chickens, dogs and sheep in the family died. Since then, there have been folk customs such as making cornus's generation, drinking chrysanthemum wine, holding temple fairs, climbing mountains and so on. Because "Gao" and "Gao" have the same sound, there is a custom of eating "Chongyang cake" on the Double Ninth Festival. In the Tang Dynasty, the poet Wang Weiyou wrote a poem "on the mountain holiday thinking of my brothers in shandong": "Being a stranger alone in a foreign land, I miss my family twice every festive season. I know from afar where my brother climbed, and there was one less person in the dogwood. " Recorded the customs and habits at that time. Because of its sincere feelings, the poem has been well-known so far. )
The winter solstice is a very important solar term and a traditional festival in Chinese lunar calendar. Up to now, there are still many places that have the custom of the winter solstice festival. The winter solstice is commonly known as "winter festival", "long solstice festival" and "sub-year-old". As early as the Spring and Autumn Period more than 2,511 years ago, our country had determined the winter solstice by observing the sun with Tugui, which was the earliest one of the 24 solar terms. The time is between February 22 and 23 of the Gregorian calendar every year.
The winter solstice is the shortest day and the longest night in the northern hemisphere. After the winter solstice, the days will become longer day by day. The ancients said about the winter solstice: when the cathode arrives, the yang begins to grow, the sun goes south, the day is short, and the shadow is long, so it is called "winter solstice". After the winter solstice, the climate in all places has entered a coldest stage, which is often called "entering the ninth". There is a folk saying in China that "the cold is in the third nine, and the heat is in the dog days".
according to modern astronomical science, on the winter solstice, the sun shines directly on the tropic of Capricorn, and the sun is the most inclined to the northern hemisphere, with the shortest day and the longest night in the northern hemisphere. After this day, the sun gradually moves northward.
In ancient China, great attention was paid to the winter solstice, which was regarded as a big festival. There was a saying that the winter solstice was as big as a year, and there was a custom to celebrate it. "Han Shu" said: "The sun is shining on the winter solstice, and the monarch is long, so congratulations." People think that after the winter solstice, the days are getting longer and the sun's spirit is rising, which is the beginning of a solar cycle and an auspicious day and should be celebrated. It is recorded in the Book of Jin that "the Winter Solstice of Wei, Jin, was congratulated by all countries and hundreds of people ... its appearance was inferior to that of Zhengdan." Explain the importance attached to the winter solstice in ancient times.
Now, some places still celebrate the winter solstice as a festival. The northern region has the custom of slaughtering sheep in the winter solstice, eating jiaozi and wonton, while the southern region has the habit of eating rice balls and long noodles in the winter solstice on this day. There is also the custom of offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors on the winter solstice in various regions.
the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month: Laba Festival
(In ancient times, the sacrifice to the "gods" in December was called La, so the twelfth lunar month was called the twelfth lunar month. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the old custom is to drink Laba porridge. Legend has it that Sakyamuni became a Buddha on this day, so every time the temple cooked porridge for the Buddha on this day, the folk followed suit and became a custom until today. )
Spring Festival is the first day of the first lunar month, also known as the lunar calendar, commonly known as "Chinese New Year". This is the most grand and lively traditional festival among Chinese people. The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors at the beginning and end of the Yin and Shang Dynasties. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the first day of the first month was called Yuanri, Yuanchen, Yuanzheng, Yuanshuo, New Year's Day, etc., commonly known as the first day of the first month. In the Republic of China, the Gregorian calendar was used, and the first day of January of the Gregorian calendar was called New Year's Day, and the first day of January of the lunar calendar was called New Year's Day.