Introduction of Chinese traditional festivals

The traditional festivals in China are diverse in form and rich in content, and they are an integral part of the long history and culture of the Chinese nation. The formation of traditional festivals is a process of long-term accumulation and cohesion of national or national history and culture. The festivals listed below are all developed from ancient times. From these festivals and customs that have been passed down to this day, we can clearly see the wonderful pictures of the ancient people's social life.

The origin and development of festivals is a process of gradual formation, subtle influence and gradual infiltration into social life. Like the development of society, it is the product of the development of human society to a certain stage. These festivals in ancient China were all related to the astronomy, calendar, mathematics and the solar terms divided later. This can be traced back to Zheng Xiao and Shangshu in Xia Dynasty at least in literature. By the Warring States period, the 24 solar terms in a year were basically complete, and later traditional festivals were also closely related to these solar terms.

Solar terms provide a prerequisite for the emergence of festivals. Most festivals began to appear in the pre-Qin period, but the enrichment and popularization of customs still need a long development process. The earliest custom activities were related to primitive worship, superstition and taboo; Myths and legends add a bit of romance to the festival; There is also the impact and influence of religion on festivals; Some historical figures have been endowed with eternal remembrance, infiltrated into festivals, and all of them have been integrated into the content of condensed festivals, giving China festivals a profound sense of history.

By the Han Dynasty, the main traditional festivals in China had been finalized. People often say that these festivals originated from the Han Dynasty, which was the first great development period after the reunification of China. Political and economic stability and scientific and cultural progress provide good social conditions for the final formation of festivals.

By the Tang Dynasty, festivals had been liberated from the mysterious atmosphere of primitive worship and taboo, and turned into entertainment etiquette and a real festive occasion. Since then, festivals have become cheerful and festive, rich and colorful, and many sports and recreational activities have appeared, which soon became a fashion. These customs continue to develop and continue.

It is worth mentioning that in the long history, scholars and poets of all ages have written many famous works for festivals. These poems are well-known and widely praised, which makes the traditional festivals in China permeated with profound cultural heritage, wonderful romance and elegant elegance.

Festivals in our country have strong cohesion and extensive inclusiveness, which are celebrated all over the country as soon as they are over. They are in the same strain as our nation's long history and are valuable spiritual and cultural heritage.

Here are just some large-scale traditional festivals of the Han nationality. China is a multi-ethnic country, and all ethnic groups have their own cultural customs. Many ethnic festivals are cultural treasures to be explored.

Introduction of Spring Festival

Spring Festival is the first day of the first lunar month, also known as Lunar New Year, commonly known as "Chinese New Year". This is the biggest and most lively traditional festival in China. The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors in the beginning and end of the Shang Dynasty. According to the China lunar calendar, the first day of the first month is called Yuanri, Chen Yuan, Jacky, Yuanshuo and New Year's Day. Commonly known as the first day of the first month. It was changed to Gregorian calendar in the Republic of China. The first day of the Gregorian calendar is called New Year's Day, and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is called Spring Festival.

The Spring Festival is coming, which means that spring is coming, everything is renewed, vegetation is renewed, and a new round of sowing and harvesting season is about to begin. People have just spent the long winter when flowers and trees are dying in the ice and snow, and have long been looking forward to the day when spring blooms. When the new year comes, it is natural to greet this festival with joy and singing.

For thousands of years, people have made the annual custom celebration extremely colorful. Every year from the 23rd to 30th of the twelfth lunar month, people call this period "Spring Festival" or "Dust Day", which is the traditional habit of our people.

Then, every household prepares new year's goods. About ten days before the festival, people were busy shopping. New year's goods include chicken, duck, fish, tea, wine, oil sauce, North and South roasted seeds and nuts, and fruit with sugar bait. They should also prepare some gifts when visiting relatives and friends in the New Year. Children should buy new clothes and hats to wear in the New Year.

Before the Chinese New Year, a New Year greeting in red paper and yellow characters should be posted on the door of the house, that is, Spring Festival couplets written in red paper. Bright-colored and auspicious New Year pictures are posted in the house. Beautiful window grilles are cut out by ingenious girls and pasted on the windows. Red lanterns are hung in front of the door, and lucky characters and door gods can be pasted upside down. Passers-by are blessed when they think of it. All these activities are aimed at adding enough festive atmosphere to the festival.

Another name for the Spring Festival is China New Year. In the past legend, "Nian" is a fictional animal, which will bring bad luck to people. New Year's Eve. When the tree is dead, the grass will not grow; After the New Year, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How to spend a year? Firecrackers are needed, so there is the custom of setting off firecrackers, which is actually another way to set off a lively scene.

The Spring Festival is a happy and peaceful festival, and it is also a day for family reunion. Children who leave home should go home for reunion during the Spring Festival. The night before the Lunar New Year is the 30th night of the twelfth lunar month, also called New Year's Eve and Reunion Night. Celebrating the New Year is one of the most important activities at the turn of the new year. On New Year's Eve, the whole family stayed up all night, got together to drink and enjoy family happiness. In the north, people are used to eating jiaozi on New Year's Eve. Jiaozi's practice is to mix dough first, and the word harmony is harmony. Jiaozi's jiaozi homonym means to get together and to make friends at a young age. South China has the habit of eating rice cakes, which are sweet and sticky, symbolizing the sweetness of life in the new year and rising step by step.

When the first cock crow rings, or the New Year bell rings, firecrackers are ringing in the street, and noise comes and goes. Everyone is beaming. The new year has begun. Men, women and children wear holiday clothes. First of all, pay New Year greetings to the elders at home. During the festival, children will also get lucky money and have a reunion dinner. On the second and third days of the following year, they began to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other and congratulate them on their new happiness and wealth.

The warm atmosphere of the festival permeates not only every household, but also the streets and alleys all over the country. In some places, there are customs such as lion dancing, playing dragon lanterns, performing social fires, visiting flower markets and temple fairs. During this period, lanterns are all over the city and tourists are all over the streets. It was very lively and unprecedented, and the Spring Festival didn't really end until after the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month.

The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han nationality, but more than a dozen ethnic minorities, such as Manchu, Mongolian, Yao, Zhuang, Bai, Gaoshan, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong and Li, have also had the custom of the Spring Festival, but the form of the festival has its own national characteristics and is more meaningful.

1 month 1 day: New Year's Day.

(The word "New Year's Day" comes from the poem "Jieya" written by Xiao Ziyun, a native of A Liang in the Southern Dynasties: "Four spirits of New Year's Day, long life from today". Yuan is the beginning, the first meaning; Dan is a knowing word. The "sun" above represents the sun and the "one" below represents the horizon. The sun rises from the horizon, symbolizing the beginning of the day. New Year's Day is the first day of the year.

Gregorian calendar 65438+ 10 month 1 is recognized as New Year's Day in the world today. The dates of the New Year in China are not consistent. For example, the Xia Dynasty is the first day of the first month; Shang dynasty is the first day of December; The Zhou Dynasty is the first day of November, and so on. 1 On September 27th, 949, the first plenary session of China People's Political Consultative Conference passed the Law on the Chronology of the AD, which designated the Gregorian calendar1as New Year's Day. )

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month: Lantern Festival

(Also known as "Shangyuan Festival", that is, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. This is an important traditional festival in China. In ancient books, this day is called Shangyuan, and its night is called Yuanye, Yuanxi or Yuanxiao. The name Yuanxiao has been used ever since. Because Lantern Festival has the custom of hanging lanterns and watching lanterns, it is also called Lantern Festival among the people. In addition, there are customs such as eating Yuanxiao, walking on stilts and riddles. The ancient calendars in China were closely related to the phases of the moon. On the fifteenth day of each month, people will welcome the first full moon night of the year, which is naturally considered as an auspicious day. As early as the Han Dynasty, the fifteenth day of the first month has been regarded as a day of offering sacrifices to gods and praying for blessings. Later, the ancients called the fifteenth day of the first month Shangyuan, the fifteenth day of July Zhongyuan and the fifteenth day of October Xia Yuan. At the latest, in the early Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sanyuan was the day when grand ceremonies were held. Of the three elements, Shangyuan is the most valued. Later, the celebrations in the Central Plains and Xia Yuan were gradually abolished, but Shangyuan was enduring. )

The day before Tomb-Sweeping Day: cold food

(A festival in old customs, the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day [two days before Tomb-Sweeping Day]. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhong Er, the son of the State of Jin who had been exiled for many years, returned to China and acceded to the throne [that is, Jin Wengong]. Except the introduction, all the courtiers who died with him were treated with respect. Jie Zhitui then lived in seclusion with his mother in Mianshan (now southeast of Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province). When Jin Wengong learned about it, he wanted to raise the bonus. He found Mianshan, but he couldn't find it, so he wanted to burn the mountain and force him out. But Jiezhi couldn't hold on, and both mother and son were burned to death. Therefore, Jin Wengong stipulates that people are forbidden to cook on the fire and express their condolences with cold food on this day every year. Later, the custom of eating cold food to sweep the grave at the Cold Food Festival was formed. )

April 5: Tomb-Sweeping Day

Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional festival in China, and it is also the most important festival to worship ancestors and sweep graves. Grave-sweeping is commonly known as going to the grave and offering sacrifices to the dead. Most Han people and some ethnic minorities visit graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day. According to the old custom, when sweeping graves, people should bring food, wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to the graves of their loved ones, then burn the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, break some green branches and insert them in front of the graves, then kowtow and worship, and finally go home after eating and drinking. The poem Qingming written by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said: "There are many rains during the Qingming period, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Ask local people where to buy wine? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village. " Write about the special atmosphere in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known as the outing festival, according to the solar calendar, between April 4th and 6th every year, it is the season of beautiful spring and lush vegetation, and it is also a good time for people to have a spring outing, so the ancients had the custom of going for an outing in Qingming and carrying out a series of sports activities. )

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month: Dragon Boat Festival

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival. The real name of "Dragon Boat Festival" is "Dragon Boat Festival", which means the beginning. "Five" and "noon" are homophonic and universal. This is an ancient festival in China. Qu Yuan, the earliest patriotic poet in ancient China.

After being exiled by slanderers, he witnessed the increasingly corrupt politics of Chu, but he could not realize his political ideal and save the dying motherland, so he threw himself into the river. Since then, in order to prevent fish and shrimp from eating their bodies, people have kneaded glutinous rice and flour into cakes of various shapes and put them in the heart of the river, which has become the source of eating zongzi and fried cakes during the Dragon Boat Festival. This custom has spread abroad. )

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month: Qixi Valentine's Day

(The night on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month is called "Qixi". According to China folklore, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet at the Magpie Bridge in Tianhe tonight. Later, some women asked Vega for help on this night and other customs. The so-called cleverness is to thread a needle through Vega with colored thread in the moonlight. It would be a "coincidence" if you could pass through seven pinholes of different sizes. The agricultural proverb goes: "On the seventh day of July, it is clear, and the sickle is used to cut rice." It's time to sharpen the sickle and get ready to harvest the early rice. )

August 15th of the lunar calendar: Mid-Autumn Festival

The fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, which is in the middle of autumn, is called the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the evening, the full moon in Gui Xiang is regarded as a symbol of happy reunion by the old customs. This is a festival to prepare all kinds of fruits and cooked food to enjoy the moon. Eat moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival. Legend has it that at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, in order to overthrow the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty, the broad masses of the people wrote the date of the uprising on a piece of paper, put it in the stuffing of moon cakes, and secretly passed it on to each other, calling on everyone to revolt on August 15. Finally, on this day, a nationwide peasant uprising broke out and overthrew the decadent Yuan Dynasty. Since then, the custom of eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival has spread more widely. )

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month: Double Ninth Festival

(the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. In ancient China, the ninth was the sun, and the ninth of September was the sun of the cloudy moon, hence the name "Chongyang". According to legend, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Runan people were in the shade, they heard Fei Changfang tell him that there would be a great disaster in Runan on September 9, so they quickly asked their families to sew a junior, put Cornus officinalis in it, tied it to their arms, and climbed the mountain to drink chrysanthemum wine in order to take refuge. On this day, the whole family climbed the mountain and went home at night. Sure enough, all the chickens, dogs and sheep in the family are dead. Since then, there have been folk customs such as making dogwood instead, drinking chrysanthemum wine, holding temple fairs and climbing mountains. Because "Gao" and "Gao" are homonyms, there is a custom of eating "Chongyang cake" on the Double Ninth Festival. Wang Weiyou, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem "Thinking of Shandong Brothers in the Mountain Festival": "When people are in a foreign land, they miss their relatives more than ever. I know from a distance where my brother climbed, and there is one person missing from the dogwood. " Recorded the customs at that time. Because of sincere feelings, this poem has become a household name. )

The winter solstice is a very important solar term, and it is also a traditional festival in China's lunar calendar. Up to now, there are still many places where the winter solstice festival is held. The winter solstice is commonly known as "Winter Festival", "Dragon Solstice Festival" and "Asian New Year Festival". As early as 2500 years ago, during the Spring and Autumn Period, China had determined the winter solstice by observing the sun through the soil return, which was the earliest of the 24 solar terms. The time is between February 22nd and 23rd of Gregorian calendar 12.

The winter solstice is the year with the shortest day and the longest night in the northern hemisphere. After the solstice in winter, the days will get longer day by day. The ancients said this about the winter solstice: As soon as the cathode arrived, the yang began to grow, the sun went south, the day was short and the shadow was long, so it was called "the winter solstice". After the winter solstice, the climate everywhere has entered the coldest stage, which is often called "entering the ninth". In China, there is a folk saying that "it's cold in March, and it's dog days".

According to modern astronomical science, the sun shines directly on the tropic of Capricorn from the winter solstice, and the sun is most inclined to the northern hemisphere. The northern hemisphere has the shortest day and the longest night. After this day, the sun gradually moved to the north.

In ancient China, people attached great importance to the winter solstice and thought it was a grand festival. There is a saying that the winter solstice is as big as a year, and there is a custom to celebrate it. "Han Shu" said: "The sun shines on the winter solstice, and you are long, so congratulations." People think that after the winter solstice, the days become longer and longer and the sun rises. This is the beginning of a solar cycle and an auspicious day, which should be celebrated. The Book of Jin records: "On the winter solstice of Wei and Jin Dynasties, people from all over the world celebrated ... its appearance was not as good as that of Zheng Dan." Explain the ancient emphasis on the winter solstice.

Now, some places still celebrate the winter solstice as a festival. The northern region has the custom of slaughtering sheep and eating jiaozi and wonton from winter solstice, while the southern region has the custom of eating glutinous rice balls and long noodles from winter solstice on this day. There is also the custom of offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors in winter solstice in various regions.

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month: Laba Festival

In ancient times, the sacrifice to "God" in December was called the twelfth lunar month, so the twelfth lunar month was called the twelfth lunar month. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the old custom is to drink Laba porridge. According to legend, Sakyamuni became a Buddha on this day, so every time the temple cooked porridge for the Buddha on this day, the people followed suit and became a custom, which continues to this day. )

Spring Festival is the first day of the first lunar month, also known as Lunar New Year, commonly known as "Chinese New Year". This is the biggest and most lively traditional festival in China. The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors in the beginning and end of the Shang Dynasty. According to the China lunar calendar, the first day of the first month is called Yuanri, Chen Yuan, Jacky, Yuanshuo and New Year's Day. Commonly known as the first day of the first month. It was changed to Gregorian calendar in the Republic of China. The first day of the Gregorian calendar is called New Year's Day, and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is called Spring Festival.

The Spring Festival is coming, which means that spring is coming, everything is renewed, vegetation is renewed, and a new round of sowing and harvesting season is about to begin. People have just spent the long winter when flowers and trees are dying in the ice and snow, and have long been looking forward to the day when spring blooms. When the new year comes, it is natural to greet this festival with joy and singing.

For thousands of years, people have made the annual custom celebration extremely colorful. Every year from the 23rd to 30th of the twelfth lunar month, people call this period "Spring Festival" or "Dust Day", which is the traditional habit of our people.

Then, every household prepares new year's goods. About ten days before the festival, people were busy shopping. New year's goods include chicken, duck, fish, tea, wine, oil sauce, North and South roasted seeds and nuts, and fruit with sugar bait. They should also prepare some gifts when visiting relatives and friends in the New Year. Children should buy new clothes and hats to wear in the New Year.

Before the Chinese New Year, a New Year greeting in red paper and yellow characters should be posted on the door of the house, that is, Spring Festival couplets written in red paper. Bright-colored and auspicious New Year pictures are posted in the house. Beautiful window grilles are cut out by ingenious girls and pasted on the windows. Red lanterns are hung in front of the door, and lucky characters and door gods can be pasted upside down. Passers-by are blessed when they think of it. All these activities are aimed at adding enough festive atmosphere to the festival.

Another name for the Spring Festival is China New Year. In the past legend, "Nian" is a fictional animal, which will bring bad luck to people. New Year's Eve. When the tree is dead, the grass will not grow; After the New Year, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How to spend a year? Firecrackers are needed, so there is the custom of setting off firecrackers, which is actually another way to set off a lively scene.

The Spring Festival is a happy and peaceful festival, and it is also a day for family reunion. Children who leave home should go home for reunion during the Spring Festival. The night before the Lunar New Year is the 30th night of the twelfth lunar month, also called New Year's Eve and Reunion Night. Celebrating the New Year is one of the most important activities at the turn of the new year. On New Year's Eve, the whole family stayed up all night, got together to drink and enjoy family happiness. In the north, people are used to eating jiaozi on New Year's Eve. Jiaozi's practice is to mix dough first, and the word harmony is harmony. Jiaozi's jiaozi homonym means to get together and to make friends at a young age. South China has the habit of eating rice cakes, which are sweet and sticky, symbolizing the sweetness of life in the new year and rising step by step.

When the first cock crow rings, or the New Year bell rings, firecrackers are ringing in the street, and noise comes and goes. Everyone is beaming. The new year has begun. Men, women and children wear holiday clothes. First of all, pay New Year greetings to the elders at home. During the festival, children will also get lucky money and have a reunion dinner. On the second and third days of the following year, they began to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other and congratulate them on their new happiness and wealth.

The warm atmosphere of the festival permeates not only every household, but also the streets and alleys all over the country. In some places, there are customs such as lion dancing, playing dragon lanterns, performing social fires, visiting flower markets and temple fairs. During this period, lanterns are all over the city and tourists are all over the streets. It was very lively and unprecedented, and the Spring Festival didn't really end until after the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month.

The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han nationality, but more than a dozen ethnic minorities, such as Manchu, Mongolian, Yao, Zhuang, Bai, Gaoshan, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong and Li, have also had the custom of the Spring Festival, but the form of the festival has its own national characteristics and is more meaningful.

The original intention of the two concepts of Spring Festival and New Year comes from agriculture. In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of the valley "year". Hebe: "in the year, the grain is ripe." . During the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the Xia calendar came into being, with the full and short moon as the month, and a year was divided into twelve months. Every month, the day when the moon can't be seen is the new moon, and the first day of the first month is called the beginning of a year, also known as the year. The title of the year began in the Zhou Dynasty and was officially set in the Western Han Dynasty, which continues to this day. However, in ancient times, the first day of the first month was called "New Year's Day". Until the victory of the Revolution of 1911 in modern China, in order to conform to the farming season and facilitate statistics, the Nanjing Provisional Government stipulated that the people should use the summer calendar, and the institutions, factories, mines, schools and organizations should adopt the solar calendar, with the Gregorian calendar 1 month 1 day as New Year's Day and the first month of the lunar calendar 1 day as the Spring Festival.

1949 On September 27th, New China was founded. At the first plenary session of the China People's Political Consultative Conference, the international use of the Gregorian calendar era was adopted, and the Gregorian calendar 1 month 1 day was designated as New Year's Day, commonly known as the Gregorian calendar year. The first day of the first lunar month is usually around beginning of spring, so the first day of the first lunar month is designated as the Spring Festival, commonly known as the Lunar New Year.

In the traditional sense, the Spring Festival refers to the La Worship sacrificial ceremony from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month or the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to the 15th day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax. During the Spring Festival, a traditional festival, the Han nationality and most ethnic minorities in China will hold various celebrations. Most of these activities are mainly about offering sacrifices to gods and buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, and praying for the new. The forms of activities are rich and colorful, with strong national characteristics.

One of the legends of the Spring Festival: staying up late for the New Year.

Keeping the old year is the custom of staying up late to welcome the new year on the last night of the old year. Also known as New Year's Eve, the common name is "Enduring the Year". Exploring the origin of this custom, there is an interesting story among the people:

In ancient times, there was a fierce monster scattered in the mountains. People call them nian. Its appearance is ferocious, its nature is ferocious, and it specializes in eating birds, animals and insects. It changes its taste every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian". Later, people gradually mastered the activity law of "Nian", that is, every 365 days, people go to places where people live in concentrated communities to taste fresh food. The haunting time is after dark, and when the rooster crows at dawn, they return to the mountains.

After determining the date of the ravages of 2008, people regarded this terrible night as a gateway, and came up with a set of methods to close the New Year's Day: every family prepared dinner in advance, turned off the fire, cleaned the stove, then tied all the cowpeas, sealed the front and back doors of the house, and hid in the house to eat the "New Year's Eve" because this dinner was uncertain. In addition to inviting the whole family to have dinner together to show harmonious reunion, we should also worship our ancestors before eating and pray for their blessing to spend the night safely. After dinner, no one dared to sleep, so they sat together and chatted with courage. Gradually formed the habit of not sleeping on New Year's Eve.

The trend of observing the age rose in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and many scholars in the Liang Dynasty had poems about observing the age. "One night for two years, five hours for two years." People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom has been handed down from generation to generation.

Legend of the Spring Festival 2: On Calendar Making in Ten Thousand Years

According to legend, there was a young man named Wan Nian in ancient times. Seeing that the festivals at that time were chaotic, he had an accurate plan. But he couldn't find a way to calculate the time. One day, he was tired of chopping wood on the mountain and sat in the shade. The movement of the shadow inspired him. He designed a sundial to measure the time of the day. Later, inspired by the dripping spring water on the cliff, he began to make a five-layer clepsydra to calculate the time. Over time, he found that every 360 days, the four seasons would cycle once, and the length of the weather would be repeated.

At that time, the monarch was called Zu Ti, who was often troubled by the unpredictable weather. Ten thousand years later, he took the sundial and the clepsydra to see the emperor and explained to Zu Ti the truth about the movement of the sun and the moon. Zu Ti was very happy after hearing this and felt reasonable. So I left for ten thousand years and built the Sun and Moon Pavilion in front of the Temple of Heaven, as well as the sundial platform and the Leaky Pot Pavilion. I hope I can accurately measure the laws of the sun and the moon, calculate the exact time in the morning and evening, and create a calendar to benefit people all over the world.

On one occasion, Zu Ti went to learn about the progress of the perpetual calendar. When he boarded the altar of the sun and the moon, he saw a poem engraved on the stone wall next to the Temple of Heaven:

Sunrise and sunset 360, start all over again.

Vegetation is divided into four seasons, and there are twelve circles in a year.

Knowing that the perpetual calendar was created, I personally boarded the Sun Moon Pavilion to visit the perpetual calendar. Wan Nian pointed to the astronomical phenomena and said to Zu Ti, "It's been twelve months now, the old year has passed and the new year has begun again. Please make a festival for you. " Zu Ti said, "Spring is the first year of a year, so let's call it Spring Festival". It is said that this is the origin of the Spring Festival.

After years of long-term observation and careful calculation, he worked out an accurate solar calendar. When he showed his successor the solar calendar, he was covered with silver whiskers. The monarch was deeply moved. In order to commemorate the achievements of 10 thousand years, he named the solar calendar "perpetual calendar" and named it the birthday star of the sun, moon and moon. In the future, people will hang up the Shou Xingtu during the Chinese New Year, which is said to commemorate the venerable ten thousand years.

The Third Legend of Spring Festival: Sticking Spring Festival couplets and Door Gods

It is said that the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets began in the post-Shu period about 1000 years ago, which is proved by history. In addition, according to the Jade Candle Collection and the Chronicle of Yanjing, the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Fu Tao".

In the ancient mythology of China, it is said that there is a ghost world, in which there is a mountain, a big peach tree covering three thousand miles, and a golden rooster at the top of the tree. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghost who travels at night will rush back to the ghost domain. The Gate of Ghost Domain is located in the northeast of Peach Tree District. There are two gods standing by the door, named Shen Tu and Lei Yu. If the ghost does something unnatural at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately find it, catch it, tie it up with a rope made of Miscanthus and give it to the tiger. So all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. So people carved them into peach trees and put them at their doorsteps to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm. Later, people simply carved the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the mahogany board, thinking that this could also eliminate disasters. This kind of red board was later called "Fu Tao".

In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on mahogany boards, one for killing evil spirits, the other for expressing good wishes, and the third for decorating the portal for beauty. They also write couplets on red paper symbolizing happiness and good luck, and stick them on both sides of doors and windows during the Spring Festival to express people's good wishes for good luck in the coming year.

In order to pray for the longevity of the family, people in some places still keep the habit of sticking up doors. It is said that there are two door gods posted on the gate, and all monsters will be afraid. In the folk, the door god is a symbol of justice and strength. The ancients thought that people with strange looks often had magical temperament and extraordinary skills. They are honest and kind, and it is their nature and responsibility to catch ghosts and demons. Zhong Kui, a ghost hunter who is highly regarded by people, is such a strange look. Therefore, the folk door gods are always glaring and ferocious, holding all kinds of traditional weapons in their hands, ready to fight against ghosts who dare to come to the door. Because the doors of China's house are usually two opposite doors, the door gods are always paired.

After the Tang Dynasty, besides peace, people also regarded Qin and Weichi Gong, two military commanders in the Tang Dynasty, as gatekeepers. According to legend, Emperor Taizong was ill, heard ghosts screaming outside, and stayed up all night. So he asked the two generals to stand by with weapons in their hands, and there was no ghost harassment the next night. Later, Emperor Taizong had the images of these two generals painted and pasted on the door, and this custom began to spread widely among the people.