The Spring Festival, as its name implies, is the Spring Festival. Spring has come, Vientiane is renewed, and a new round of sowing and harvesting season is about to begin again. People have enough reasons to welcome this festival by singing and dancing. So, before the festival, a New Year message with red paper and yellow characters was posted on the frontispiece. When Miss Chun comes to the door, she will read a sentence to express her best wishes for the New Year. With this idea, good luck really came. The same moral things are hanging red lanterns, sticking the word "Fu" and sticking the statue of the God of Wealth. The word "Fu" must be posted backwards, and passers-by will say "Fu has fallen", which means "Fu has arrived".
Another name for the Spring Festival is China New Year. What is "year"? It is a fictional animal, which will bring bad luck to people. "Year" came, the trees withered and the grass stopped growing; A year has passed, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How to spend the year? Firecrackers are needed, so there is a custom of setting off firecrackers. 1993, the Beijing Municipal People's Government promulgated a law prohibiting the setting off of fireworks and firecrackers, making this centuries-old custom a thing of the past.
The Spring Festival is a family reunion festival, which is very similar to Christmas in the West. Children who leave home will have to travel thousands of miles back to their parents' home at this time. The night before the real Chinese New Year is called Reunion Night, and the whole family will sit around and wrap up jiaozi. Jiaozi's practice is to mix dough first, and the word "harmony" means "combination"; Jiaozi in jiaozi is homophonic with "dumpling", and "harmony" and "dumpling" have the meaning of reunion, so jiaozi is used to symbolize reunion.
The festive atmosphere will last for a month. There are ceremonies such as offering sacrifices to stoves and ancestors before the first day of the first month; In festivals, there are ceremonies to give lucky money to children and to pay New Year greetings to relatives and friends. Half a month after the festival is the Lantern Festival. At that time, lanterns were all over the city and tourists were all over the streets. After the Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival is over.
Spring Festival: Modern folk custom calls Spring Festival China New Year. In fact, the origin of Chinese New Year and Spring Festival is very different.
So how did the year come from? There are two main folk sayings:
One way of saying this is:
According to legend, there was a monster named Nian in ancient China, with long tentacles and a ferocious face. Nian lived on the seabed for many years, and climbed ashore every New Year's Eve, devouring livestock and killing people.
Therefore, every New Year's Eve, people in the village fled to the deep mountains to avoid the harm of the "Nian" beast.
On New Year's Eve this year, people in Taohua Village were taking refuge in the mountains when an old beggar came from outside the village. He was leaning on crutches, carrying a bag on his arm, with elegant silver whiskers and staring at Matthew.
Some villagers sealed windows and locked doors, some packed their bags, some herded cattle and drove sheep, and people shouted boo everywhere, which was a scene of panic. At this time, who still has the mind to take care of this begging old man?
Only an old woman in the east of the village gave the old man some food and suggested that he go up the mountain quickly to avoid Nian beast. The old man smiled and said, "If my mother-in-law lets me stay at home for one night, I will definitely drive Nian beast away.
The old woman looked at him carefully in surprise and found that he was handsome, energetic and different. But she continued to persuade and begged the old man to laugh without saying a word. My mother-in-law had no choice but to leave home and take refuge in the mountains.
At midnight, Nian beast broke into the village. It found that the atmosphere in the village was different from previous years: the old woman's house at the east end of the village had red paper on the door and a fire lit in the house. The beast Nian trembled and let out a long whistle.
Nian stared at her mother-in-law's house for a while, then screamed and rushed over. When we were near the door, there was a sudden explosion in the yard, and Nian trembled and dared not go any further. It turns out that Nian was most afraid of red, fire and explosion. At this time, my mother-in-law's door was wide open, and I saw an old man in a red robe laughing in the hospital. "Nian" was frightened to disgrace and fled in confusion.
The next day was the first day of the first month, and the people who came back from refuge were very surprised to see that the village was safe and sound. At this time, the old woman suddenly realized and quickly told the villagers the promise of begging for the elderly.
The villagers flocked to the old woman's house together, only to find red paper on her mother-in-law's door, a pile of unburned bamboo still exploding in the yard, and several red candles still glowing in the house. ...
In order to celebrate the arrival of Youxiang, ecstatic villagers put on new clothes and hats one after another and went to their relatives and friends' homes to congratulate and say hello. The story soon spread in the surrounding villages, and people all knew the way to drive away the "Nian" beast.
Since then, every year on New Year's Eve, every family has posted red couplets and set off firecrackers. Every household has a bright candlelight, so it is better to wait for the New Year. In the early morning of the first day, I want to say hello to my relatives and friends.
This custom has spread more and more widely, and has become the most solemn traditional festival among the people in China.
Another way of saying it is:
In ancient China calligraphy, the word "Nian" was placed in the Grain Department, indicating that the weather was favorable and the crops were plentiful. Because cereal crops are usually harvested once a year. "Year" is extended to the name of the year.
Although there was a custom of Spring Festival in ancient China, it was not called Spring Festival at that time. Because the Spring Festival referred to at that time refers to the "beginning of spring" among the 24 solar terms.
The Northern and Southern Dynasties generally referred to the Spring Festival as the whole spring. It is said that the Lunar New Year was officially named Spring Festival after the Revolution of 1911. Because the solar calendar was used at that time, the first day of the first lunar month had to be renamed as "Spring Festival" in order to distinguish between farmers and farmers.
Lantern Festival: It is a big festival among the traditional festivals in China, which is quite prominent. Lantern Festival is named because its festival activities are held on the fifteenth night of the first month of each year.
Lantern Festival is also called "Lantern Festival" and "Lantern Festival", because the main activity of this festival is to light lights at night, hence the name. In addition, the Lantern Festival is also called "Shangyuan" and "Shangyuan Festival", which is borrowed from Taoism.
There are different opinions about the formation of the Lantern Festival custom, but it was roughly formed in the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty offered sacrifices to a god named Taiyi. It is said that Taiyi was a very prominent god at that time, ranking above the five emperors and owing to the Han emperor, so he was greatly worshipped. According to legend, another Emperor Wendi of the Han Dynasty was also related to the Lantern Festival.
Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty was a general, Zhou Bo. He succeeded to the throne and quelled the "Zhu Lu rebellion". The day when the rebellion was quelled was the fifteenth day of the first month. Therefore, every night on the fifteenth day of the first month, Emperor Wen of Han would go out to play in the palace and have fun with the people. This day was designated as the Lantern Festival. But there is no record of lighting or setting fire on the fifteenth night of the first month, which is related to these two Han emperors. Another Han Emperor, Emperor Hanming, ordered the Lantern Festival to be lit, thus forming the custom of lighting and watching lanterns in later generations.
The custom of the Spring Festival is the best.
The earliest Spring Festival: According to legend, China's primitive society has the saying of "La Worship". After the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, this custom was handed down. The book Erya says the Spring Festival: "Summer is the year, business is the New Year, and week is the year".
The earliest New Year's Eve: The last night of the Chinese New Year in China is called "New Year's Eve". "New Year's Eve" originated from "banishment" in the pre-Qin period. According to Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals, on the day before the New Year, the ancients beat drums to drive away "epidemic ghosts", which is the origin of "New Year's Eve". The earliest mention of the name "New Year's Eve" was "Local Customs" written in the early Zhou Dynasty in the Western Jin Dynasty.
The earliest Spring Festival couplets: According to the History of Song Dynasty, on the New Year's Eve (AD 964) one year before the Song Dynasty destroyed Shu, Meng Hammer, the master of Houshu, wrote "Spring Festival, Changchun is Jia Festival", which is recognized as the earliest Spring Festival couplets.
The earliest New Year pictures: The predecessor of New Year pictures is called door pictures. The earliest form of New Year pictures was the door gods, who painted the mythical tea and Lei Yu. Some people painted tigers or ancient warriors on the doors. In the Song Dynasty, it evolved into woodcut New Year pictures.
The earliest New Year cards: As early as the Song Dynasty, the custom of giving New Year cards appeared. According to "Notes of Officials", Zhang Shinan, a native of Southern Song Dynasty, had ink in his home to congratulate Zheng Dan in Yuan You period of Northern Song Dynasty. "Zheng Dan" means the first day of the first month, and "Congratulations to Zheng Dan" means "Congratulations to the New Year" printed on the New Year card.
The earliest firecrackers: the custom of setting off firecrackers in the Spring Festival began in the Han Dynasty, when there was no gunpowder paper. The so-called firecrackers are the crackling sound when bamboo burns.
The earliest lucky money: According to the ancient book "The Legacy of Kaiyuan Tianbao", the lucky money first appeared in Tianbao period of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, and concubines would play a game of throwing money together on the third day of the Spring Festival, so the court Qian Ku gave them some money. This style was very popular in the court at that time.