Spring Festival, is the first day of the Chinese New Year, the first day of the first lunar month, also known as "Yuan Day", "Nian Dan", commonly known as "New Year". "Headed by a hundred festivals", this is a traditional festival that the Chinese nation attaches the most importance to. It is also the most solemn, warmest and longest celebrated of all festivals, starting from the beginning of the first month of the first month, generally at least until the fifteenth day of the first month, and the new year is not considered to end.
In fact, the earliest Spring Festival does not refer to the beginning of the year, but the Festival of Lichun, that is, the Lichun of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms. The first and fourth seasons of the lunar calendar are basically synchronized, and the difference between the spring and the beginning of the year is not a few days, so people will celebrate the new year at the same time. Slowly, the Spring Festival becomes the "New Year", which is the beginning of the year.
So, what exactly is a "year"?
Years are the concept of time and the unit of time.
The original ancestors did not have the concept of "year", and later due to social evolution and life needs, they gradually summarized the method of measuring time from practice. It is recorded in the "Chronicle of History" that the "Huozheng" official was set up during the reign of Emperor Yao, and the official of Xihe was set up during the time of Emperor Yao to guide agricultural production with the "Ming Dynasty Zhengdu".
Therefore, "yin and yang, wind and rain festivals, lush qi, the people have no disease." This way of observing the celestial phenomena to determine the four seasons is called "observation and timing". The Xia Dynasty timed the moon according to the direction of the Big Dipper handle and a number of stars, and used the Tiangan Chronicle, and the Shang Dynasty already used the Dry Branch Chronicle, and there were twelve months in the Yin Ruins Oracle Bone Bu Ci.
However, the name "year" appeared relatively late. The Erya records that Yao Shunshi called nian "Zai", Xia Dynasty called Nian "Year", Shang Dynasty changed it to "Qi", and it was not until the Zhou Dynasty that it was called "Nian".
So, when did the concept of "New Year" come into being?
According to legend, when Emperor Shun inherited the Son of Heaven, he led people to worship heaven and earth, so people set the day when Emperor Shun succeeded to the throne as the first day of the new year, called the first day of the year, which is the new year of the summer calendar. However, in the course of historical evolution, the New Year of the Summer Calendar also has different names at different times.
In the pre-Qin period, it was called Shangri, Yuanri, Changing The Age, Offering the Year, etc.; the Two Han Dynasties were called the Three Dynasties, the Year Dan, the Zhengdan, the Zhengri, etc.; in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it was also called Yuanchen, Yuanri, Yuanshou, Nianchao, etc.; the Tang and Song Dynasties were also called New Year's Day, Yuan, Nianri, Xinzheng, Xinyuan, etc.; in the Qing Dynasty, it was always called New Year's Day or Yuan Day. Until 1914, Yuan Shikai approved the first day of the first lunar month as the "Spring Festival", and the first day of the solar calendar year as "New Year's Day". In 1949, the Chinese Political Consultative Conference passed the use of the "Gregorian Calendar Chronicle Law", which designated January 1 of the Gregorian calendar as "New Year's Day" and the beginning of the first lunar month as "Spring Festival", and stipulated the Spring Festival holiday for people to celebrate the Lunar New Year enthusiastically.
Too early calendar
Moreover, the specific date of the New Year at that time was not the first day of the first lunar month as we generally believe now, but was constantly changing. The Xia Dynasty was set for the first day of January, the Shang Dynasty was changed to the first day of December, the Zhou Dynasty was changed to the first day of November, and the Qin Dynasty advanced the New Year to the first day of October. Until 104 BC (the first year of the Taichu Dynasty), Emperor Wu of han accepted the suggestion of Sima Qian and others, began to use the Taichu Calendar, restored the Xia calendar (that is, the lunar calendar), clearly stipulated that the first day of the first lunar month was the first year, and set the twenty-four solar terms into the calendar. Although later dynasties have modified the calendar, most of them are based on the Taichu Calendar, which still takes the first month of Meng Chun as the first month of the year, and the first day of the first month of the new year as the first day of the new year.
So, we know the date of the New Year, and there is also a question, that is, when did Chinese start "New Year"?
In fact, as early as the pre-Qin period, there began to be the germ of New Year customs, but the celebrations at that time were mainly held at the end of a year's agricultural work, in order to repay the gifts of the gods. It was not until the Western Han Dynasty, with the implementation of the "rest and recuperation" policy, people's lives began to slowly improve, and a series of festival customs were formed. Later, with the implementation of the "Taichu Calendar" and was officially established as the first day of the first lunar month of the New Year, the original festivals and celebrations at different times in various regions began to be gradually unified to the first day of the New Year.
Last time we said that the custom of keeping the age of Chinese New Year's Eve began in the Wei and Jin dynasties, and there is a record of the age keeping in the "Record of Customs" in the Zhou Dynasty, and at the same time, the "Record of Customs" also records the legend of the "year" of the beast.
In the Tang Dynasty, the customs of the New Year underwent new changes. From the past prayers and mystical atmosphere, the shift began to move in the direction of entertainment and etiquette. Firecrackers are no longer used to "ward off evil spirits" and have become a way for people to rejoice and celebrate. The focus of the "New Year" has also shifted from sacrifice to celebration.
Bye-day post
During the Tang Dynasty, people visited the door to worship the New Year, and also invented a kind of "New Year's Prayer". Emperor Taizong of Tang once made a greeting card out of red gold leaf and gave it to the chancellor with the imperial book "Universal Celebration". Later, this form began to be popularized in the folk, and everyone changed to plum blossom paper and wrote "New Year stickers" to each other, which was called "Flying Posts" at that time. It can be said that since the Tang Dynasty, the New Year has truly become a "good festival" celebrated by the whole world.
During the Song Dynasty, people became popular for eating dumplings during the New Year. Wu Zimu of the Song Dynasty recorded in the "Mengliang Lu Zaizhi Prince Nanban Hundred Officials Entering the Inner Shangshou Feast": "Where the imperial banquet is held to the third lamp, fang enters the wine and salty sauce, and doubles the hump horn." The "horns" here are what we now call dumplings. Moreover, the Song Dynasty has begun to make firecrackers with paper-wrapped gunpowder, and the custom of setting off firecrackers in Chinese New Year's Eve and Spring Festival has gradually become popular. The "Tokyo Dream Record" records that "it is a firecracker mountain called out in the night ban, and the sound is heard outside." ”
In the Ming Dynasty, activities such as the folk god of the stove, the god of the door, the couplet, the Chinese New Year's Eve the year, and the fifteen lantern viewing parties can be said to be becoming more and more abundant.
Lantern guess the riddle
The Qing Dynasty also attached great importance to the New Year, the court that day was extremely luxurious, the emperor would write a blessing to give to the courtiers, the New Year will continue until the end of the Lantern Festival, the Lantern Guessing Riddle has become a very popular way of entertainment.
It can be seen that the New Year customs in the Ming and Qing dynasties are different from the previous ones, and the etiquette and socialism are strengthening. In the New Year, people pay homage to each other, and dignitaries and dignitaries popularly send each other famous posters or go to the door to prostrate; ordinary people pay attention to giving each other gifts and paying respects to each other. During the New Year, entertainment such as lion dances, dragon dances, acting, storytelling, and stilt walking begins to appear, making people overwhelmed. During this period, New Year customs have been integrated with traditional culture, becoming a large exposition focusing on China's thousands of years of customs and culture.
So, after sacrificing stoves, sticking door gods, pasting Spring Festivals, eating Chinese New Year's Eve meals, keeping the Age and setting off firecrackers, what else do people have to do on new year's day?
Of course it's New Year's Eve! On the first day of the Chinese New Year, people usually get up early, wear new clothes and hats, and after packing up, they will start to go out to visit relatives and friends and greet each other. Of course, when you go out, you have to set off firecrackers again, which is the custom of "opening the door and firecrackers" last time.
Bye bye
Then comes the official "New Year's Greeting". Usually, the juniors prostrate themselves to the elders, and the elders will give the pre-prepared money to the juniors to wish them a safe year. Relatives and friends of the same generation are holding their fists and congratulating each other.
There are many records about the origin of "Praying for the New Year". The wind of worshiping the New Year already existed in the Han Dynasty, and began to develop after the Song Dynasty.
Elder Meng of the Song Dynasty recorded in the "Tokyo Dream Record": "On the first day of the first lunar month, the Kaifeng government released the guanpao for three days. The priests have been celebrating each other since early on. The Song dynasty Zhou Xuan recorded in the "Qingbo Magazine": "During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, during the New Year's Festival, servants were often used to hold the name of the thorn instead. This may be the beginning of the "New Year's Greeting" model.
Lu Rong of the Ming Dynasty recorded in the "Miscellaneous Records of Shuyuan": "After the New Year's Day of the JingShi, from the imperial officials down to the Shu people, those who crossed the road for several days were called 'Worshiping the New Year'. The people of Ranshi worship their relatives and friends, and they are more sincere. When officials come and go, they are more generally in love and do not specialize..." The Ming Dynasty literary scholar Wen Zhengming also had a poem "Bai Nian":