If there is a traditional festival ranking and the selection of the most important festivals, I believe that most people feel that the Spring Festival is the most important. According to traditional customs, from the eighth day of the first lunar month, it enters the countdown to the Spring Festival, which is the most important festival of the year.
Some scholars have researched that the history of the Spring Festival can be traced back to the "Wax Festival" in the Xia Shang Zhou Period. In the classic document "Book of Rites", it is recorded that "the first day prays to God", and the "yuan day" mentioned in it is the Spring Festival. On this day, the monarch will hold a solemn sacrifice to pray for the blessings of heaven. Later, the first day of worship became the Spring Festival, a festival celebrated by the whole world.
Since the Spring Festival is so important, how to spend a happy and peaceful Spring Festival? This is very different from ancient to modern times. The ancients began with the porridge boiled in Laba and did not end until the end of the flower viewing lantern on the fifteenth day of the first month, and the Spring Festival was completed. In general, the ancients celebrated the Spring Festival, and the activities were quite rich, including three aspects: blessing, entertainment, and visiting friends.
Many people have heard a nursery rhyme, "Twenty-three sugar melon sticky, twenty-four sweeping houses, twenty-five tofu..." Prepare so many delicacies, not only for their own enjoyment, but also for ancestor sacrifice. On the day of Chinese New Year's Eve, the ancients put up long strips for ancestral tablets. After the ancestors enjoyed the food, it was shared by the family.
The custom of giving money to the elderly also stems from prayers. The original intention of pressing the old money is that the elders hope for the younger generations, and at the end of the year, there is surplus money, and the elders have good wishes for the younger generations. For modern people, in addition to the meaning of blessing, the money has some other meanings. For example, some people make videos to complain about the lively scenes when they press the old money, and some people show off the amount of the old money, losing the cultural meaning of the old money.
In terms of entertainment, the entertainment activities of the ancients are even richer than those of modern people. People can visit temple fairs, watch plays and listen to music, play cards and admire the lights. For modern people, the so-called entertainment activities in addition to "shopping and eating", there is only one left to hold the mobile phone to travel the world.
There is an important activity during the Spring Festival, that is, to pay tribute to friends and relatives. The ancients regarded new year worship as an important social etiquette, greeting peers and juniors kowtowing to their elders. For modern people, the form of New Year's greeting has long since become less important. Sending a message, making a phone call, saying happy, is enough.
From the similarities and differences between ancient and modern times during the Spring Festival, we can feel that the times have developed, customs and habits have also changed, and there are characteristics of the times for how to celebrate traditional festivals. Maybe in a few decades or hundreds of years, there will be subtle changes in the way people celebrate the New Year. The only constant is that the Spring Festival, as the "boss" in traditional festivals, will not change its status in people's hearts.
Modern people celebrate the Spring Festival, and the festival culture is condensed into one reunion dinner after another. In one meal and one meal, experience the warmth of the family and the love of family affection. There are festivals of love and festivals of relatives, which is the most important cultural connotation of the Spring Festival.