Why is there a "New Year"? What does "New Year's Day" mean?

China's New Year's Day is said to have started in Zhuan Xu, one of the three emperors and five emperors, with a history of more than 3,000 years. The word "New Year's Day" first appeared in the Book of Jin: "It is actually the spring of New Year's Day when the emperor was transferred to the first month." In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Xiao Ziyun's poem "Elegance in the Southern Dynasties" also recorded "New Year's Day in four seasons, long life in early spring".

China first called the first day of the first lunar month "New Year's Day". Meta means "early" and "beginning" and refers to "day". Together, New Year's Day is the first day of the year. The date of the first day of the first month was also very different before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, the New Year's Day of the past dynasties is not consistent. Meng Xiyue (1 month) is the first month of the Xia calendar, the twelfth month of the Shang lunar calendar (1February) and the winter month of the week calendar (1 1 month). After Qin Shihuang unified China, Yangchun month (October) was the first month, that is, the first day of October was New Year's Day. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it has been stipulated that Meng Xiyue (January) is the first month, and Meng Xiyue (the first day of the first month in the summer calendar) is called New Year's Day, which has been used until the end of the Qing Dynasty. But this is the summer calendar, that is, the lunar calendar or lunar calendar, and it is not what we call New Year's Day today.

In A.D. 19 1 1, the Revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yat-sen overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. In order to "follow the agricultural season, so follow the western calendar, so do statistics", the first year of the Republic of China decided to use the Gregorian calendar (actually used as 19 12), and stipulated that Gregorian calendar 1 was called "New Year's Day", but not "New Year's Day".

Today's "New Year's Day" is the first plenary session of China People's Political Consultative Conference on September 27th, A.D. 1949. When we decided to establish the Republic of China, we also decided to adopt the universal calendar, officially designated the Gregorian calendar 1 as "New Year's Day" and changed the first day of the first lunar month to "Spring Festival".