The Spring Festival is the day to get rid of the old and bring in the new. Although the Spring Festival is scheduled for the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the activities of the Spring Festival do not stop at the first day of the first month. From the end of the small year, people will begin to "busy year", all these activities, there is a **** the same theme, that is, "out with the old and in with the new".

The Spring Festival generally refers to New Year's Eve and the first day of the first month. However, in folklore, the Spring Festival is traditionally celebrated from the Lunar New Year festival on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, or the Zaos Festival on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the Lunar New Year, until the fifteenth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year.

The Spring Festival origin: Spring Festival from the wax festival said, from witchcraft rituals said, from the "New Year" beast said, from the Yu and Shun period of sacrifice to the sky and the rise of said, from the ancient book of the word to the "Wo" word, said, to fight for flowers to rule the world, "New Year's money" said, originated in the Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries after the provisions of said, the God of the door said. I think the Spring Festival in the many origins, the most noteworthy are 5, the following with me to see it:

? One of the origins of the Spring Festival: the Lunar New Year festival?

On the wax festival, the ancient books have recorded: "December 8 is the wax day. The village people and play fine drums, wear Hu head, and make Vajra force earth to expel the epidemic". The objects of the Lunar Sacrifice are the ancestors and the five household gods. The five household deities are the door, the household, the window to the sky, the stove, and the line (the land inside the door). Various offerings are made to thank the ancestors and the family gods for their blessings and gifts, and to pray for good weather conditions, abundant harvests, thriving livestock, and family well-being in the coming year. This Chinese folk custom first began in the Zhou Dynasty. Whether the official family or civilian family, the end of the year to hold a "year-end sacrifice", the scale of the grand grand for the most of the year, the name of this festival is called "wax", there are a variety of ancient books as evidence: "jade candle Baodian": "La, a year of the great sacrifice." The Dictum: "La, the end of the year, the great sacrifice." "Jing Chu chronicle": "Confucius so in the La Bin, a year in the feast in this festival." The ancients would hunt in the month of Lunar New Year, and use the captured animals and birds as "sacrifices" for their ancestors.

In the pre-Qin era, there was a ritual called the "Wax Sacrifice". The "Wax Sacrifice", as recorded in the "Records of the Rites - Suburban Special Adults" and other documents, was an end-of-year ritual to thank the gods of heaven and earth for bringing in a good agricultural harvest and to pray for good weather conditions in the coming year. Wishes are made in the spring and thanks are given to the gods at the end of the year. The objects of the wax festival are called the "eight gods," which include the gods of the founding of agriculture, the gods of rivers and canals, the gods of dykes, the gods of insects, and so on. They even include the gods of cats and tigers, who helped to eliminate field mice and wild boars that destroyed crops.

Ancient texts have learned that there were also year-end sacrifices and ceremonies for discussing and declaring government in ancient times. The Shangshu Shundian (a pseudo-ancient text of the Shangshu that has been handed down to us) says that on the first day of the month, Emperor Shun went to the temple to sacrifice to Emperor Yao, discussed state affairs with the four rulers of the four directions, and opened the four gates of the Mingtang (Hall of Fame) to promulgate decrees of government to the people. I think this may be the origin of the later generations' New Year's pilgrimage and worship. La sacrifice and the first year of sacrifice time close to the end of the first phase even, so the Qin and Han dynasties to the two sacrifices and called "the first wax", after the two sacrifices and evolved into a wide range of nearly a month before and after the year of the Spring Festival.

? The origin of the Spring Festival: the legend of the creation of the calendar?

Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a young man named Wannian, who saw that the seasons were very chaotic at that time, and had the intention of trying to set the seasons right. One day, when he was tired of chopping wood on the mountain, he sat down to rest under the shade of a tree, and the movement of the shadow of the tree inspired him to design a sundial for measuring the sun's shadow and counting the time of the day, and to determine the time of the day. Later, the dripping spring on the cliff inspired him, and he made a five-tiered funnel pot to count the time. Over time, he realized that every 360 days or so, the seasons turned around and the length of the day was repeated.

On one occasion, Zu Yi went to learn about the progress of the Ten Thousand Years Test Calendar. When he ascended to the Altar of the Sun and the Moon, he saw a poem inscribed on the stone wall beside the Temple of Heaven: "The sun rises and the sun sets in three hundred and six days, and the cycle repeats itself from the beginning. Grass and trees wither and prosper in four seasons, and a year has twelve rounds." Knowing that Wannian's creation of the calendar had come to fruition, he personally ascended to the Sun and Moon Pavilion to visit Wannian. Wannian pointed to the sky and said to Zuyi, "It is now the twelve full months, the old year is over and the new spring begins again, so I pray that the king of the country will set a festival." Zu Yi said, "Spring is the first day of the year, let's call it Spring Festival". This is said to be the origin of the Spring Festival.

Winter to spring, year after year, Wannian after a long period of observation, careful projection, developed an accurate solar calendar, when he presented the solar calendar to the succeeding king, already full of silver beard. The king was y touched, and in honor of Wannian's achievements, he named the solar calendar "Wannian Calendar", and appointed Wannian as the star of the sun and moon. After that, people put up a picture of the star of longevity on New Year's Day, which was said to be in honor of Wannian, who was a highly respected person. In his honor, the first day of the year was designated as "Nian".

? The origin of the Spring Festival No. 2: Yu Shun sacrificed to heaven?

There are many legends about the origin of the Spring Festival, but one of them, which is generally accepted by the public, is that the Spring Festival was initiated by Yu Shun.

In the era of historical legends, Zhucheng, Juxian area for one of the activities of the East Barbarians, the East Barbarians for the Shao Hao, one of the earlier tribes in China. Therefore XuXuSheng think ChiYu for east barbarians tribal long, ZhuoLu battle ChiYu defeat, YanHuang tribal culture eastward, to YaoSun period.

But the Taishan festival is different from the general festival of heaven, but the emperor or tribal alliance leader of the festival of heaven, such as Yu Shun east patrol in Taishan on the festival of heaven; Juxian Ling Yang river found in the ceramic of the festival of heaven, may be the Department of the local clan level of the festival of heaven; zhucheng the former Zhai unearthed ceramic, when the tribal level of the festival of heaven. From the rich connotation and complex stratigraphic relationship of the former Zhai site, it can be seen that the ancestors there were a more advanced tribe worshipping the bird and the sun, and it was also the cultural center of the tribe at that time. It is worth noting that this site is not far from Zhufeng, where Shun is said to have been born, and belongs to the Weifang River Basin, so it is likely that Yu Shun was active here or belonged to the tribe to which he belonged before he was elected tribal leader. Of course, the Juxian Lingyanghe site, also related to Yu Shun, or even Yu Shun in the former Zhai or Lingyanghe two places, used to carry out small-scale, tribal-level sacrifices, and was elected tribal leader, and then Zhucheng former Zhai sacrifices to the sky of the custom, brought to the Taishan Mountain, rising to the imperial level of sacrifices to the sky.

One day, more than 2,000 years B.C., Shun, the son of heaven, 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, which was later called the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival used to be called New Year's Day. The month of January in which the Spring Festival falls is called New Year's Day.

? The origin of the Chinese New Year: the evolution of the ancient character "禾"?

The word "year" was first used in the Yinxu divination. The oracle bone character shape is "禾"(the full and drooping crop) and "人"("people"), the whole of which looks like a person carrying a harvest of grains on his or her back, which belongs to the Chinese character "会意字", which means a good harvest, and "人", which is also a part of the Chinese character "". The character "人" is also a part of the Chinese character "声旁". In the divination, there are often "year", "year", is to pray for a good harvest.

Because the Shang Dynasty generally planted one season of crops a year and harvested only once a year, the term "year" was also derived as a unit of time, i.e., 12 months. In the divination, there are sayings such as "up to seven years" and "up to five years".

Nian: Shuowen Jiezi (说文解字)本作秊. The grain is also ripe. The word "harvest" is also used to describe the ripening of grain. The regularization of the seal script, so that the regular script has this writing style of the word "year", and this writing style, but also directly affects the writing style of the word "year" in cursive, many contemporary calligraphers, only to imitate the handwriting of the ancients, do not go deeper into the origins of the cursive glyphs.

China's ancient calligraphy puts the word "year" in the Wo department to show that the wind and rain are favorable and the grains are plentiful. Since grains and cereals are usually ripened once a year, the character "年" was used to indicate that there is a good harvest. The "year" will be extended to the name of the year. From the original meaning of the word "year" and the derivation of the meaning of the word we can know, as late as from the Shang Dynasty, China has been an agricultural country based on agriculture.

In the folklore around Guanzhong, Shaanxi Province, there are legendary stories about the Spring Festival. Legend has it that the Jade Emperor sent the Maitreya Buddha from the Heavenly Palace down to earth in order to rule the earth. This was known to Rulai Buddha, and he thought to himself, "I'm the Lord of the Buddhas, why don't you let me go? So, to find the Jade Emperor reasoning, the Jade Emperor heard, speechless, had to say: "discuss and then say it." The Jade Emperor has come up with a solution to the problem by taking the opportunity to discuss the matter.　

He invited Maitreya Buddha and Rulai Buddha, put two pots of flowers in front of the two Buddhas, said: "These two pots of flowers you two each service a pot, whose flower first bloom, who will go down to earth to manage the earth." Rulai Buddha's mind, thick ideas, know that the Jade Emperor must favor Maitreya Buddha, because he guessed that the Jade Emperor is afraid of the words out of the mouth is difficult to take back, only to service flowers as an excuse to do this. In front of these two pots of flowers, I'm afraid the Jade Emperor has secretly made arrangements, so also came up with a small plan. He took the opportunity of Maitreya Buddha's closing his eyes to give thanks, and quietly switched the two pots of flowers. The next day, Rudraksha's flowers bloomed, so Maitreya Buddha only managed one day on earth, which was the first day of the first month. Legend has it that Maitreya Buddha's heart was good, and on this day he allowed people to eat well, wear good clothes and sleep well, and thus people spent the first day of the first lunar month in joy and exuberance.?　

Later, in order to honor Maitreya Buddha, people called this early spring, the time when the two Buddhas met, "Spring Festival". Some people say that, because the Buddha left a blind phenomenon by stealing and changing flower pots, until now, there is still petty theft on earth.

The origin of the Spring Festival is different from north to south, but one thing is basically the same, that is, the family reunion, visit friends and relatives, visit elders, etc., may we will be full of these strong affection and good wishes of the custom in mind, passed on from generation to generation.