What is the New Year?

The New Year, that is, the first day of the year, is a popular holiday in most countries in the world. All countries in the world, especially in ancient times, have different dates for the New Year. Most countries in the modern world set the calendar year as 1. 1. Modern China calls "New Year's Day" the Gregorian New Year and "Spring Festival" the Lunar New Year. On that day, people will celebrate the arrival of the New Year in various ways.

China

In China, New Year has different definitions due to the implementation of two different calendars.

According to the Gregorian calendar, 65438+ 10/every year is New Year's Day.

According to the lunar calendar, the first day of the first month of each year is the New Year.

1 91265438+1October1,the Republic of China was formally established. It is the first democratic republic in Asia and the first country in Asia to implement the * * * and constitutional system, with a land area of114. This is the origin of "New Year's Day" in China.

Stick to the end of this 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, and its sex is ferocious. Specializing in eating birds, animals and insects, changing tastes every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, makes people talk about "Nian" color change. Later, people gradually mastered the activity law of "Year". It goes to a crowded place to taste fresh food every 365 days, and its haunting time is after dark. When the rooster crowed at dawn, it returned to the mountains.

When the date of "New Year's Eve" was determined, people regarded this terrible night as a gateway, called "New Year's Eve", and came up with a whole set of methods to close the New Year's Eve: every family prepared dinner in advance, turned off the stove, tied up all the cowpeas, sealed the front and back doors of the house, and hid in the house to eat "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, you are two years old, and the five classes are divided into 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.

Theory of perpetual calendar creation

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 their birthdays on the Chinese New Year to commemorate the venerable ten thousand years.