The origin of Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Chongyang Spring Festival and Lantern Festival and related legends and stories.

One theory originated from the sacrificial activities of ancient emperors. It is recorded in the Book of Rites that "the sun rises in spring and the moon sets in autumn", and the moon is a sacrifice to the moon, indicating that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, emperors began to offer sacrifices to the moon and Yue Bai. Later, aristocratic officials and scholars followed suit and gradually spread to the people.

Second, the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival is related to agricultural production. Autumn is the harvest season. The word "autumn" is interpreted as "autumn when crops are ripe" In the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, crops and various fruits are maturing one after another. In order to celebrate the harvest and express their joy, farmers regard the Mid-Autumn Festival as a festival. "Mid-Autumn Festival" means the middle of autumn. August in the lunar calendar is a month in autumn, and the 15th is a day in this month. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival may be a custom passed down from the ancient Autumn Newspaper.

Some historians have also pointed out that the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival should be August 15th, 13th year of Tang Jun's great cause at the end of Sui Dynasty. Pei Ji and Tang Jun, with the idea of a full moon, successfully invented moon cakes and distributed them to the army as military salaries, which successfully solved the problem of military rations derived from absorbing a large number of anti-Sui rebels.

2. Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival is the oldest folk festival in China. At first, it was a totem festival of tribes who worshipped dragon totem in Baiyue area (south of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River) in ancient times. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a custom of offering sacrifices to dragon totems in the form of dragon boat races in Baiyue area.

Later, Qu Yuan, a poet of Chu State (now Hubei) in the Warring States Period, threw himself into the Miluo River on this day. In order to set an example of loyalty and patriotism, the rulers took the Dragon Boat Festival as a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan. In some areas, there are also sayings commemorating Wu Zixu, Cao E and the poetess Qiu Jin. Since ancient times, there have been festivals such as picking dragon boats and eating zongzi.

3. Chongyang

The origin of traditional festivals is related to ancient primitive beliefs, sacrifices, calendars and other humanistic and natural cultural contents. Most of the traditional festivals in ancient times were formed in the activities of the ancients who chose auspicious day sacrifices to thank the gods of heaven and earth and the ancestors for their kindness. The Double Ninth Festival has a long history, starting from ancient times. In ancient times, the customs of the north and the south were different. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, local customs had not been integrated and circulated, and the activities of the Double Ninth Festival were rarely recorded in the Central Plains literature.

The existing written records about the custom of the Double Ninth Festival were first found in the pre-Qin classic "Qiu Ji Ji Lu Chunqiu", which recorded the ancient people's activities of offering sacrifices to the Heavenly Emperor and ancestors in September. In the process of historical continuation, the Double Ninth Festival has integrated a variety of folk customs. With the development of the times, the cultural connotation of the Double Ninth Festival has been continuously extended and enriched.

4. Spring Festival

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. During the Spring Festival, Han people and many ethnic minorities in China will hold various activities to celebrate. The main contents of these activities are offering sacrifices to gods and buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new year, and praying for a bumper harvest. The activities are rich and colorful, with strong national characteristics.

The legend of "year"

A long time ago, there was a monster named Nian, who always came out on the eve of the Spring Festival to hurt pigs, chickens, cows and sheep raised by human beings, and sometimes attacked human beings. Human beings are deeply disturbed by it, so they can't have a good year, so they brainstorm and try to get rid of Nian beast.

At this time, an old man with a white beard stood up and suggested that as long as people in every household lit firewood, put up red window paper, beat gongs and drums and set off firecrackers, Nian Animals would never come again.

After people listened, sure enough, Nian animals saw the red window paper, heard the sound of gongs and drums and firecrackers, and ran away. Therefore, during the Spring Festival every year, people will beat gongs and drums and set off firecrackers to drive away the Nian beast and welcome the arrival of the Spring Festival.

5. Lantern Festival

As early as more than 2,000 years ago, during the Western Han Dynasty, the viewing of Lantern Festival began in the period of Emperor Hanming in the East. Ming Di advocates Buddhism. He heard that in Buddhism, there was a custom of monks watching the relic light lanterns to worship Buddha on the fifteenth day of the first month, so he ordered them to light lanterns to worship Buddha in palaces and temples that night, so that all the gentry and the people could hang lanterns. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. This festival has experienced the development process from the court to the people, and from the Central Plains to the whole country. ?

Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty ordered the 15th day of the first month to be designated as the Lantern Festival. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrificial activities of "Taiyi God" were scheduled for the 15th day of the first month. Taiyi: the God who rules the universe. When Sima Qian created the taichu calendar Law, he had already identified the Lantern Festival as a major festival.

Another way of saying it is that the custom of burning lanterns in Lantern Festival originated from the "ternary theory" of Taoism; The fifteenth day of the first month is Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is Xiayuan Festival. The officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth and man respectively. The celestial officials are happy and the Lantern Festival should be lit.

The festivals and customs of Lantern Festival have been extended and expanded with the development of history. As far as the length of festivals is concerned, there is only one day in Han Dynasty, three days in Tang Dynasty and five days in Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, lights were lit from the eighth day of August until the seventeenth night of the first month, a total of ten days. Connected with the Spring Festival, it is a city during the day, full of excitement, and brightly lit at night, which is spectacular. Especially the exquisite and colorful lights make it the climax of entertainment activities during the Spring Festival. In the Qing Dynasty, there were more "hundred operas" such as dragon dancing, lion dancing, dry boating, walking on stilts and yangko dancing, but the festival period was shortened to four to five days.

Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty set it up to commemorate Pinglu.

According to legend, the Lantern Festival was set up to commemorate Pinglu during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty. After the death of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, Lv Hou's son Liu Ying became Emperor Hui of Han Dynasty. Hui Di was born weak and indecisive, and power gradually fell into the hands of Lv Hou. After Hui Di's death, he monopolized state affairs and turned Liu's world into Lu's. The old courtiers and Liu Zongshi were deeply indignant, but they were afraid of cruelty and dared not speak out.

After Lv Hou's death, Zhu Lu has been in a state of anxiety, afraid of being hurt and excluded. So, in the general's home, they secretly assembled and plotted to make trouble in order to completely seize Liu's country.

This incident reached the ears of Liu Nang, the king of Qi in the Liu clan. In order to protect Liu's country, Liu Nang decided to fight Zhu Lu. Then, he contacted the founding fathers Zhou Bo and Chen Ping, and planned to get rid of Lv Lu. Finally, the "Zhu Lu Rebellion" was completely put down.

After the rebellion, the ministers made Liu Heng, the second son of Liu Bang, emperor and called him Emperor Wen. Impressed by the hard-won peace and prosperity, Emperor Wen designated the 15th day of the first month of the first month to quell the "Zhu-Lu Rebellion" as a day to have fun with the people, and every household in Beijing celebrated with lanterns and colorful decorations. Since then, the fifteenth day of the first month has become a popular folk festival-"Lantern Festival".