New Year's Day in ancient China has traditionally referred to the first day of the first lunar month of the lunar calendar (also known as the summer or lunar calendar). The "Yuan" of "New Year's Day" refers to the beginning, which means the first, and the beginning of the number on New Year's Day is called "Yuan"; "Dan", a hieroglyph, the "day" above represents the sun, and the "one" below represents the horizon. "Dan" is the sun rising from the horizon, symbolizing the beginning of the day. People combine the words "yuan" and "dan" to extend it to the first day of the new year. New Year's Day is also known as "three yuan", that is, the yuan of the year, the yuan of the month, and the yuan of the time.
The Common Era chronology, formerly known as the Age of Christ, also known as the Western Calendar or the Western Calendar, is a calendar named "Gregorian Calendar" made by the Italian physician and philosopher Aloysius Lilius who reformed the Julian calendar. It was approved by Gregory XIII, then Pope of Rome, in 1582.
The "Yuan" of "New Year's Day" refers to the beginning, which means the first, and the beginning of all numbers is called "Yuan"; "Dan", a hieroglyph, the "day" above represents the sun, and the "one" below represents the horizon. "Dan" is the sun rising from the horizon, symbolizing the beginning of the day. People combine the words "yuan" and "dan" to extend it to the first day of the new year. New Year's Day is also known as "three yuan", that is, the yuan of the year, the yuan of the month, and the yuan of the time.
"New Year's Day" is said to have originated from one of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, which has a history of more than 5,000 years. The Book of Jin, written by Tang Fang Xuanling and others, reads: "Emperor Zhao took the first month of Meng Chun as the yuan, and the spring of the New Year's Day was on the new year's day. That is, the first month is called the yuan, and the first day is the dan.
The word "New Year's Day" first appeared in the Southern Dynasty Xiao Ziyun's "Jieya" poem: "Four Qi New New Year's Day, The Beginning of Longevity and the Present Dynasty." Song Dynasty Wu Zimu's "Record of Dream Liang" Volume 1 "Zhengyue" entry: "The new day of the new moon, called New Year's Day, is commonly known as the New Year." The first of the year is the first. New Year's Day is called "Yuan Day" in the Shu Shun Dian (書·舜典), "Yuan Zheng" (元正) in the Han Dynasty Cui Yu (三子钗茗), "Yuan Chen" (元辰) in the Jin Dynasty Yu Yu (杨都赋) of the Jin Dynasty; "Yuan Chun" (元春) in a Northern Qi poem by Emperor Xia Ci (元会大享歌皇夏辞), and "Yuan Shuo" (元朔) in The Poem "Yuan Shuo" (元日) by Li Shi of Tang Dynasty (元日) "Yuan Ri (元日 Retired from the Dynasty and Watching the Army Return to Camp".
In the first year of the Qianlong Dynasty, the "Kaibi JiYu Notes". First Historical Archive Collection
However, the months and days of New Year's Day in Chinese dynasties are not consistent. The Xia Dynasty was on the first day of the first lunar month, the Shang Dynasty was on the first day of December, the Zhou Dynasty was on the first day of November, and after Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, he took the first day of October as New Year's Day, and since then the successive dynasties have not changed. In the first year of emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Sima Qian created the "Taichu Calendar", which stipulated that the Meng Xi Month (元月) was the first month, and the first day of the Meng Xi Moon (the first day of the first lunar month of the Summer Calendar) was called New Year's Day. This calculation method is the same as that stipulated in the Xia Dynasty, so it is also called "Xia Calendar". The "New Year's Day" on the first day of the first lunar month was used from the first year of the han wudi emperor to the Xinhai Revolution.
New Year's Day has the meaning of "one unity and renewal of everything". At the same time, the New Year's Day of the Republic of China period was deliberately chosen by the rulers as the "founding anniversary" of the Republic of China.
On January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as the provisional president in Nanjing, and then officially telegraphed the provinces: "The Republic of China has changed to the solar calendar, and November 13, 4609 AD of the Yellow Emperor's Era is the New Year's Day of the First Year of the Republic of China." In order to "line the xia zheng, so shun the peasant time; from the western calendar, so it is counted.".
On January 13, 1912, Sun Yat-sen issued the Decree of the Provisional President on the Promulgation of the Almanac, instructing the Ministry of the Interior to compile and print a new almanac. The order to change the almanac immediately raised two questions, one of which was that the first New Year's Day of the Republic of China had already passed when the circular was issued, and it could only be made up for. The second is that the folk custom to the first day of the first lunar month as the New Year's Day, civil servants are to Chinese New Year's Eve as the deadline, the so-called waxing moon soaking garlic, is a euphemism: "it is time to settle the account", so change, in the end which day to calculate the account, the Gregorian calendar year or the lunar year?
The "change of calendar" led to the anecdote that the Republic of China "made up for the New Year" at the beginning. On January 8, the "Minli Bao" published that "the Republic of China changed to the solar calendar." However, considering that the various commercial directions have closed their accounts in the lunar year, and the sudden change of the chapter may be obstructed, the settlement period of The Chinese New Year's Eve of the New Era is still on February 17 of the new era, that is, the Chinese New Year's Eve of the Old Calendar. ”
At that time, due to the confrontation between the north and the south, the provinces under the control of the Republic of China government were celebrated in Nanjing on January 15 of that year, while the northern provinces still worshiped the Qing court as Zhengshuo, so the vast northern region still used the era name of "Xuanun", with the first day of the first lunar month, that is, February 17, 1912, as the New Year's Day. In 1912, China not only made up for New Year's Day, but also temporarily divided two places for two different New Year's Day, which is unprecedented in the world.
In the folk, the general public does not pay attention to the New Year's Day of the Gregorian calendar, and still refers to the first day of the first lunar month as the New Year, and celebrates it in the traditional way. As a result, two calendar systems have emerged in China, one is the official western solar calendar system as the time standard for public administration, law enforcement, and international exchanges; the other is the lunar calendar system of traditional society, which people use according to customs to serve agricultural time and daily social life.
In fact, at the end of the old calendar year, the people close their accounts as usual, get rid of the old and welcome the new, and celebrate the Spring Festival. As for the people's New Year's mentality of welcoming the "new" and liking the "old", Lao She once made an image description in an essay entitled "Dafa Discussion": "In the two new years, first pass the national calendar New Year, and then pass the 'family calendar' New Year, there are so many dozens of days between the two, just to break the connection, take care of this without losing the other." However, this is a typical "Yang Feng Yin Violation" for the Government Decree that is eager to implement the New Year's Day holiday to replace the Spring Festival holiday.
The broad masses of peasants, on the other hand, did not know about the "national calendar" New Year's Day holiday propagated by the Kuomintang Party Department, and they still repeated their lives, calculating the seasons according to the lunar calendar and arranging the agricultural time. Whether or not New Year's Day is a holiday has little to do with them. So Yu Dafu used "you live your year, I live my year" to describe the actual implementation of this "dual" calendar, which is quite appropriate.
Therefore, in January 1914, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of China government proposed in a submission to Yuan Shikai: "It is proposed to designate the Lunar New Year's Day as the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival as the Summer Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival as the Autumn Festival, and the Winter Solstice as the Winter Festival." All our citizens are allowed to rest, and those in public are also allowed to take a day off. ”
In the end, Yuan Shikai took into account the habits of other ethnic minorities and only approved "New Year's Day as the Spring Festival". As a result, the traditional Lunar New Year's Eve was officially renamed "Spring Festival", and the traditional "New Year's Day" and "New Year" names were placed on January 1 of the Gregorian calendar.
The government of the Republic of China was very dissatisfied with this dualistic calendar and tried to use the Gregorian calendar uniformly. Until 1930, it was still "dual parallel", so the government reiterated that holidays and various ceremonial entertainment, such as New Year's Greetings, Group Worship, Ancestor Worship, and Spring Festival, were all held around the Time of the New Year. Every year, the military, the government, the academy, and the business will each gather together to celebrate, and all organs and schools will also have a 3-day holiday. But this is limited to the celebration of institutional groups.
The Gregorian New Year's Day is different from the traditional festival, which is a new thing promoted by the Republic of China from top to bottom, so the government should vigorously promote and guide, and the most able to remind the people that this is a holiday is to take the New Year's Day holiday. Beginning in 1931, local governments tried their best to promote the national calendar, forcing the people to pass the national calendar "New Year's Day" in the way of the old calendar "New Year's Day", prohibiting the new year of the old calendar and selling old calendar books. During the Spring Festival, the government sent police to the closed shops, forced them to open their doors, and destroyed the Yuanbao tea and the fruits offered to the worship, and some even imposed fines, which caused panic for a while.
As a result, between urban and rural areas, some people gradually knew that there was such a "New Year's Day", and the concept of the national calendar gradually entered the hearts of the people. And at this time, on the new year's day, the merchants are replaced by new Spring Festival, the lights are displayed, the business is closed for 3 days, and various acrobatics and other entertainment activities are used to celebrate. Reviewing the situation of the old year on New Year's Day and planning the future of the New Year can be described as "resigning the old and welcoming the new".
The first place to take the New Year's Day holiday was Shanghai County. On December 20, 1912, the civil administrator of Shanghai County issued a circular stating:
"If you want to dedicate the spring to the new year, you should rest for a few days to celebrate the New Year." However, social habits have been in place for a long time, and when they are first started, they are not always passed. New Year's Day is the anniversary of the founding of the Nanjing Government, and all chinese people who apply for the celebration of the national contract, in addition to showing the edict, the joint line of photos has been checked and followed. ”
The Shanghai County Town Hall then informed the residents of the city that they "should take a break" on New Year's Day. The Shanghai Local Court And Prosecutor's Office informed the office staff that they would take a four-day holiday from December 31, 1912 to January 3, 1913.
During the Beiyang government period, the practice of taking a three-day holiday from January 1 to 3 was basically formed, when general government agencies stopped working to "show rest". Not only did "all military and political organs stop working for three days," but "the judicial organs also suspended litigation for three days from New Year's Day." All localities have followed the example of the central authorities, and local administrative and judicial organs, military, government, and civil affairs have set three days off. However, banks, trusts and other financial institutions generally "take two days off as usual", and a few banks take a one-day holiday.
In some places, especially in Jiangnan and other places, the New Year's Day holiday has been repeatedly extended. In 1914, Nanjing politicians enjoyed a three-day New Year's Day holiday, which was reported in the Declaration on January 3, 1914. On New Year's Day 1917, all public and private schools in Suzhou "closed from the afternoon of the 30th until the 3rd of January" and had a four-day holiday. On New Year's Day 1918, schools in Jiaxing County were on holiday for 5 days. By 1921, Nanjing's New Year's Day holiday had been extended from December 28 to January 3, which had been extended to seven days.
In 1927, after the Nationalist government established the capital nanjing, in order to implement the solar calendar to replace the lunar calendar, it changed the old customs of the people by increasing the number of holiday days on the new year's day of the solar calendar. In December 1930, the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee issued a telegram stipulating that "the New Year of the National Calendar shall be changed to a five-day suspension, that is, from December 31 to January 4." Accordingly, the Executive Yuan of the National Government informed all organs throughout the country that the New Year would be closed for 5 days. By 1933, the Nationalist government had issued a circular order to change the New Year's Day leave to 3 days. Since then, the New Year's Day holiday has been 3 days, which has gradually become a practice and system.
On September 27, 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference resolved: "The chronicle of the People's Republic of China adopts the Common Era Chronology Law", which is now called the solar calendar, in order to distinguish the two new years of the lunar calendar and the solar calendar, and in view of the fact that the "Li Chun" in the twenty-four solar terms of the lunar calendar is just around the time of the Lunar New Year, the first day of the first lunar month was renamed "Spring Festival", and the first day of the first month of the solar calendar was set as "New Year's Day", and at this point, New Year's Day became a happy festival for the people of the whole country.
Resources:
"New Year's Day and Spring Festival Originally "Family": Yuan Shikai Approved Them "Misplaced"" Li Yu
◇ Some of the information in this article comes from the National Humanities and History, the First Historical Archive, etc
◇ The pictures not marked in this article come from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author
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