The Origin of China New Year

According to legend, a long time ago, there was a young man named Wannian who made firewood. He saw that the festival was chaotic at that time and decided to get it right. One day, he went up the mountain to cut wood and looked at the shadows of the trees. Suddenly, he was inspired by the moving shadow of the tree. When he got home, he designed a sundial instrument to measure the length of the sun and calculate the number of days. But what about cloudy, cloudy, foggy and rainy weather? Later, he saw the spring water dripping rhythmically on the cliff, so he made a five-layer leaky pot and timed it by leaking water. He slowly found that the length of the weather repeats every 360 days, and the shortest day is in the winter solstice.

Wannian went to see the son of heaven with a self-made sundial instrument and water leakage device, and told the son of heaven the results of his years of measurement, explaining the cycle of winter solstice and the operation of the sun and the moon. After hearing this, the son of heaven felt that Wannian made sense, so he left Wannian behind and built a sundial platform and a leaky pavilion in front of the Temple of Heaven.

After a while, the son of heaven sent a seasonal official, Aheng, to learn about the perpetual calendar system. Wannian took out his own calendar and said, "Sunrise and sunset are 360, so start all over again. The vegetation is divided into four seasons and there are twelve laps a year. " After listening to this, Ah Heng was very jealous: if the festival is set in ten thousand years, it will be reused by the emperor ... so he bought an assassin to assassinate ten thousand years.

At noon one day, when Wannian went to see the shadow on the sundial, the assassin drew a bow and shot at Wannian. Just listen to the sound of "ah", and it will fall in ten thousand years. When the guards heard the news, they caught the assassin and sent him to the son of heaven. The son of heaven learned that Aheng planned the assassination for ten thousand years, so he put Aheng to death and personally visited Wannian. Wan Nian pointed to Shen Xing and said, "Now Shen Xing has caught up with Silkworm White Star, and the Star Family has recovered, so the children will have sex at night. The old year has passed and it is spring again. I hope that Tianzi will set up a festival! " "Spring is the beginning of a year. Let's call it Spring Festival." The son of heaven said. Since then, the custom of the Spring Festival has been passed down to this day.

The Origin of China New Year: 2

The Spring Festival is also called the lunar year, commonly known as "Chinese New Year". The activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, which originated from the beginning and end of the Shang Dynasty, are the most solemn and lively ancient traditional festivals in China. 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 custom: offering sacrifices to the stove to sweep the dust, pasting Spring Festival couplets, pasting the word "Fu" on the New Year's Eve dinner (reunion dinner), offering sacrifices to ancestors, giving out red envelopes (lucky money) to celebrate the New Year, sending oranges in the New Year, setting off firecrackers in the New Year, and taking the God of Wealth back to her mother's house on the sixth day to send the poor.

The Origin of China New Year: III

There are many legends about the origin of the Spring Festival, and the most popular one is the following story:

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, eating livestock and hurting people's lives. 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 hisses 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 village east gave the old man some food and suggested that he go up the mountain quickly to avoid the "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 the 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 at the east end of the village had red paper on her door and the room was brightly lit. 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. As we approached the door, there was a sudden explosion in the yard. 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. Villagers flocked to the old woman's house, 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 auspicious arrival, 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 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.

Spring Festival, commonly known as Chinese New Year, is the most solemn traditional festival of the Chinese nation. Since the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the first day of the first month in the summer (lunar calendar) has been the beginning of the year, and the festival date has been fixed, which has continued to this day.

New Year's Day was called New Year's Day in ancient times. 19 1 1 After the Revolution of 1911, the Gregorian calendar was used to calculate the year, so it was called New Year's Day on the Gregorian calendar 1, and the first day of the first lunar month was 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.