Refers to the festival that started on the first day of the first lunar month, and is a traditional festival to celebrate the New Year in many parts of East Asia. It is also one of the most important festivals in Chinese mainland, Macau, Hongkong, Taiwan Province Province, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan before the Meiji Restoration.
The traditional names of Spring Festival are New Year and New Year, but they are usually called China New Year orally. In ancient times, the Spring Festival refers to the beginning of spring in solar terms, while the Lunar New Year is called "New Year", which means the first day of the year.
After the Revolution of 1911, the government of the Republic of China changed the lunar calendar to the solar calendar, and tried to prohibit people from celebrating the Lunar New Year, but it failed because of the people's insistence. Later, during Yuan Shikai's reign, 65438+ 10/was designated as New Year's Day, and the first day of the first lunar month was the "Spring Festival", but the old people still celebrated New Year's Day and the writers still wrote "Celebrating New Year's Day". The word "Spring Festival travel rush" really became popular after 1949.
Traditionally, every lunar year has an animal as a symbol of the year, called the Zodiac. Some days in the first month also have different nicknames: the first day is the Year of the Rooster; The next day is dog day; The third day is the year of the pig; The fourth day is sheep day; The fifth day is the Year of the Ox; The sixth day is horse day; The seventh day is a human day; The eighth day of August is the birthday.
Origin:
It is difficult to verify when the custom of Chinese New Year originated, but it is generally believed that it originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors at the end of the Yin and Shang Dynasties in China (La Worship). It is said that there was a custom of Spring Festival as early as Yao and Shun times. The first month of the lunar calendar is the beginning of a year. In most cases, beginning of spring is in the first month or the middle of the first month (in a few cases, beginning of spring is in the late twelfth month). The time of the festival is considered to be related to the influence of agricultural labor; Oracle Bone Inscriptions's "Nian" and both have mature images of ears of grain. The last day of the Lunar New Year (30th and 29th of each month) is called "New Year's Eve". On New Year's Eve, the whole family get together to have a New Year's Eve dinner (the last meal of the Lunar New Year). After New Year's Eve, there are customs of giving lucky money and staying up late, which means that the last day of the previous year will be reserved for the first day of the second year.
The time of the Spring Festival is different in different periods. Xia dynasty is the beginning of a year; Shang Dynasty is the winter festival of the four seasons. It is also said that the so-called "Spring Festival" in ancient times refers to the festival sequence of spring, which once referred to beginning of spring in the 24 solar terms, and sometimes referred to the whole spring. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty implemented the solar calendar, it was clearly stipulated that the first day of the first month of the first month of the summer calendar was the beginning of the year, which was called the New Year of the summer calendar.
Legend:
According to legend, in ancient times, there was a fierce monster called Nian, which was in the deep sea all the year round, but at the turn of the new year, it came out to destroy crops and hurt people and animals, and the people complained bitterly. Once it went to the village to do evil again and was scared away by the red clothes hanging at the door. When I arrived at another place, I was scared by the lights and ran around. So people have mastered the weakness of Nian's fear of sound, red and fire. At the end of each year, people put up red couplets, set off firecrackers, hang red lights at home, burn firewood in the yard, chop vegetables and meat with kitchen knives, making a noise, scaring Nian into the sea and no longer endangering people and animals.
Custom:
The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is a traditional festival of the Han nationality, symbolizing the arrival of the "New Year". Traditionally, Laba porridge is drunk on this day, and Laba garlic is cooked on this day.
Sacrificing the kitchen stove is to send the kitchen god to heaven in the coming year.
Worship God, send God, burn incense, light candles and hang lanterns.
Worship ancestors and go to the grave.
Clean it up It is usually held on the 28th of a year, that is, two to three days before the New Year. On that day, the house should be cleaned to welcome the Spring Festival. There is a saying in Hong Kong that "at the age of 28, you should be careless".
Put up Spring Festival couplets and New Year pictures, and some rural areas even want stick grilles.
Eat New Year's Eve (reunion dinner) and save it for the elderly.
Eating rice cakes means "rising year by year".
Set off firecrackers (firecrackers)
Set off fireworks.
Pay New Year greetings to each other. Some traditions in Hong Kong are that the younger generation goes to the elder's home to pay New Year greetings, usually to the man's home. On the second day of the second year, I went back to my daughter's house to pay a New Year call. On the third day of the lunar new year, we generally don't go out to pay New Year's greetings. Because my mouth is red, I hope to avoid quarreling with others. If relatives and friends have not paid New Year greetings to each other, they will continue on the fourth day of the first year.
Send out red envelopes. (lucky money)
Walking on stilts.
Buy annual flowers.
Beating gongs and drums.
Family reunion. People who go out to study and work should go home to reunite with their parents and celebrate the New Year together. See Spring Festival travel rush, afraid of being homeless.
It is a custom in Hong Kong not to pay New Year greetings on the third day of the Lunar New Year. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, people traditionally try not to pay New Year greetings to others to avoid quarrels. In Hong Kong, many good men and women will go to Chegong Temple in Sha Tin to pray and turn windmills, which means turning out good luck and praying for good luck in the New Year and peace throughout the year.
Do not buy shoes. Guangdong folk custom means not to buy shoes in January of the lunar calendar (because "shoes" is similar to the sound of "alas" in Cantonese).
During the Spring Festival, people always say congratulations when they meet. For example, congratulations on getting rich, getting richer every year, getting safer every year, rising step by step, and prospering people.
Do not move the knife. In some rural areas and cities in Chinese mainland, it is a habit not to use knives or scissors from the first day to the third day of the Lunar New Year.
No bathing, no cleaning. In some traditions, you can't take a bath, wash your hair or clean up on New Year's Day, so as not to wash away or sweep away your luck.
Eliminate the old and welcome the new. Buy some new clothes.
On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the god of wealth is greeted. It is said that the god of wealth will send blessings to the world on this day. This activity is very popular in southern China. Since the 1990s, some big cities have set off fireworks and firecrackers in the early morning of the fifth day of the fifth day as much as New Year's Eve.
Related literature:
Tian Jia Guo nian
meng haoran
Last night, I returned to the north and began to live in the East.
I'm already a strong official, but I'm still worried about agriculture.
Sang Tianli's father, hoe and shepherd boy.
Tian said that the climate is abundant this year.
The first day of the lunar month
Wang Anshi
Amid firecrackers, one-year-old send warm entered Tu Su except the spring breeze.
Thousands of families always trade new peaches for old ones every day.
Yuanri (Yulouchun)
Maopang
One year, the lotus fell out of the blue well, and Tu Su froze the wine.
Han Xiao is cold and deceitful. In spring, he is slim and arrives in Liu first.
Beauty urges longevity of cypress leaves, peppers, flowers and delicate sleeves.
Deep in my hometown, I don't know each other, but I only stay with Dong Jun.
Try to write (choose one) on New Year's Day.
Chen Xianzhang
When the clouds in the sky celebrate, the temple competes for grass and grass knowledge.
Adjacent to the city wall, we entertain guests, drink, sing together and enjoy New Year's poems.
When you get old and spring comes, you will have better flowers.
Where is the night breeze when the flute blows at the bottom of the river?
Ding Mao yuan ri
Qian Qian B.
One-year-old wine worships the court, except for the younger son's clothes to comfort the screen.
Serve the mother's heart, eat meat, occupy years, and prefer to dream of fish.
Fishing curtains want to welcome the new nest, and Yan Di inkstone also sparse old books
I have nothing to do with my neighbor's chicken and millet.
Wu Jia New Year's Day
Kong Renshang
Xiao Shu's white hair is not full, and the stove is destroyed.
Cut the candle and dry the midnight snack wine, and buy spring money everywhere.
Listening to firecrackers, childlike innocence, watching the change of peach blossom characters, old and biased.
Drum horn plum blossom plus five smiles to pay New Year's greetings.