Today's "New Year's Day" refers to the first day of the first month of the solar calendar every year. This is the traditional New Year of our country and many countries in the world.
In fact, as early as ancient China, "New Year's Day" began. However, the "New Year's Day" at that time was very different from today. Before the disappearance of the Qing Dynasty, the "New Year" was not called "Spring Festival", but most of them were called "New Year's Day". That is to say, this previous "New Year's Day" is not the first day of the first month of the solar calendar.
"Yuan" is called "first", "Dan" is called "day", and the two words can be combined to be extended to "the first day of the new year". Therefore, "New Year's Day" is also called "three yuan", that is, the yuan of the year, the yuan of the month, and the yuan of the time. It is said that the ancient New Year's Day originated from one of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, which has a history of more than 4,000 years.
During the Tang Dynasty, Fang Xuanling and others were responsible for revising the Book of Jin, which contained a record of "New Year's Day": "Emperor Zhao took the first month of Mengxia as the yuan, but in fact, the spring of the New Year's Day of Zhengshuo. ”
The earlier records of New Year's Day can also be seen in the southern dynasty literary historian Xiao Ziyun's poem "Jieya". It mentions "Four Seasons new New Year's Day, Wanshou Early Spring Dynasty", which clearly explains its "beginning" significance.
In the Song Dynasty Wu Zimu's "Record of Dreams", there is also "the first lunar new day, called New Year's Day, commonly known as the New Year." The first of the year festival is recorded.
There is another legend about its origins. Legend has it that in the ancient Yao Shun period, Emperor Yao was diligent in government and loved the people, and after he grew old, he gave up his status to Shun, who had both moral integrity and ability, and Shun zen gave the throne to Yu, who made great contributions to the management of water. They have all done a lot of good things and are very loved by the people.
In order to commemorate them, everyone regards the day when Shun sacrifices heaven and earth and Yao after Yao's death as the beginning of the year, called "New Year's Day" or "Yuan Zheng", which became the origin of ancient New Year's Day.
The origin of New Year's Day is closely related to human life. For example, to do farm work, you need some accurate time nodes. And the beginning of the year has a special meaning, so humans invented the calendar.
The ancients discovered the natural phenomenon of day and night alternation, full moon and four seasons, and finally took the cycle of day and night as a "day", referring to the cycle of moon phase changes to determine the "month", and the grain maturity cycle represented the cold and summer, called "year", that is, the time when the sun orbited the earth.
It took a long time to accurately calculate the above period. With the changes in the ancient Chinese calendar, the time of "New Year's Day" also changed several times.
Before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the months and days of New Year's Day in previous dynasties were different, and even the names were not very consistent. The Summer Calendar of the Xia Dynasty, with the MengXi Moon as the first month, that is, the First Month, so to speak, the New Year's Day of the Xia Dynasty is the current Spring Festival, the first day of the Lunar New Year; the Yin Calendar of the Shang Dynasty, with the WaxIng Moon, that is, the Lunar Calendar December as the First Month, so the New Year's Day of the Shang Dynasty is the first day of the first month of december of the lunar calendar; the Zhou Dynasty's Weekly Calendar, with the winter month, that is, the Lunar Calendar November, is the first day of the First Month of the Lunar Calendar; when the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang unified China, the Yang Spring Month, that is, the Lunar October, the first day of October of the Lunar Calendar of the Qin Dynasty is the New Year's Day.
It was not until the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that it was no longer tossed, when the Meng Xiyue (January) was stipulated as the first month, and the first day of the Meng Xiyue (the first day of the first lunar month of the Xia calendar) was called New Year's Day, and since then, it has been followed until the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Editor: Fan Xin
Content synthesized from the web