How did the New Year come in China?

The Spring Festival, as its name implies, is the Spring Festival. Spring has come, Vientiane is renewed, and a new round of sowing and harvesting season is about to begin again. People have enough reasons to welcome this festival by singing and dancing. So, before the festival, a New Year message with red paper and yellow characters was posted on the frontispiece. When Miss Chun comes to the door, she will read a sentence to express her best wishes for the New Year. With this idea, good luck really came. The same moral things are hanging red lanterns, sticking the word "Fu" and sticking the statue of the God of Wealth. The word "Fu" must be posted backwards, and passers-by will say "Fu has fallen", which means "Fu has arrived".

Another name for the Spring Festival is China New Year. What is "year"? It is a fictional animal, which will bring bad luck to people. "Year" came, the trees withered and the grass stopped growing; A year has passed, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How to spend the year? Firecrackers are needed, so there is a custom of setting off firecrackers. 1993, the Beijing Municipal People's Government promulgated a law prohibiting the setting off of fireworks and firecrackers, making this centuries-old custom a thing of the past.

The Spring Festival is a family reunion festival, which is very similar to Christmas in the West. Children who leave home will have to travel thousands of miles back to their parents' home at this time. The night before the real Chinese New Year is called Reunion Night, and the whole family will sit around and wrap up jiaozi. Jiaozi's practice is to mix dough first, and the word "harmony" means "combination"; Jiaozi in jiaozi is homophonic with "dumpling", and "harmony" and "dumpling" have the meaning of reunion, so jiaozi is used to symbolize reunion.

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; During the festival, there are ceremonies to give children lucky money and 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: Modern folk custom calls Spring Festival China New Year. In fact, the origin of Chinese New Year and Spring Festival is very different.

So how did the year come from? There are several folk sayings:

Legend of "nian" beast

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 boo 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's house at the east end of the village had red paper on the door and bright candles in the room. 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.

The legend of enduring a year

In our country, people have the habit of keeping watch on New Year's Eve. Watching the new year begins with eating New Year's Eve dinner. This New Year's Eve dinner should be eaten slowly, starting with lighting lanterns, and some families have to eat it until late at night. According to the Chronicle of Jingchu in the Song Dynasty, at least in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was a custom of New Year's Eve.

The custom of observing the old age not only includes the feeling of farewell and nostalgia for the fleeting time, but also expresses the good hope for the coming New Year. The ancients wrote in the poem "Shousui": "Invite Shousui Arong's family to spread red candles to green gauze; Thirty-six years have passed, and I am more willing to cherish my youth from this night. "It is human nature to cherish the years, so the great poet Su Shi wrote a famous sentence:" There will be no years next year, and I am worried about waste; "Do your best tonight, young people can still boast!" This shows the positive significance of keeping old on New Year's Eve.

Keep your age at 30, commonly known as "endure the year." Why is it called "Endure the Year"? There is an interesting story among generations of people: in Archaean, there was a fierce monster scattered in the mountains, and people called them "Nian". Nian has a ferocious appearance and a ferocious nature. It only eats birds, animals and scale insects, and changes its taste every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian". Slowly, people mastered the activity law of "Year". It turns out that every 365 days in 2008, I went to places where people lived to taste fresh food, and the time of haunt was after dark. When the rooster crowed at dawn, they returned to the mountains. When the ravaging date of "Nian" was determined, men and women regarded this terrible night as the "Year's Eve" and came up with a set of methods for "Year's Eve": every family prepared the New Year's Eve dinner in advance, turned off the stove, tied up all the barns, sealed their doors and hid in the house to eat the "New Year's Eve"-because it was very fierce. After dinner, no one dared to sleep, so they sat together and got up the courage to chat.

It's getting dark, and I escaped from the deep forest in and touched the village where people live together. I saw every household's door closed, sesame stalks piled in front of it, but there was no one in the street. After turning around for the middle of the night, I found nothing, so I had to chew sesame stalks to satisfy my hunger. After a while, the rooster crowed, and these cruel and stupid monsters had to go home disgruntled. Those who have survived the "Year-end" are overjoyed. They want to thank the ancestors of heaven and earth for their protection, congratulate each other on not being eaten by Nian, and open the door to set off firecrackers to greet their neighbors and friends to congratulate them ... When people meet, they bow to each other and congratulate each other, glad that they were not eaten by Nian beast. After many years, nothing happened, and people relaxed their vigilance against Nian beast. On the evening of 30th one year, Nian beast suddenly fled to a village in the south of the Yangtze River. A village was almost eaten up by Nian beast, and only a pair of newly-married couples in red curtains were safe and sound. There are also a few childish people who lit a pile of bamboo in the yard and were playing. The fire is red. Bamboo exploded after burning. Nian beast turned here and saw the fire turn and flee. From then on, people know that Nian beast is afraid of red, light and noise. At the end of each year, every household sticks red paper, wears red robes, hangs red lights, beats gongs and drums, and sets off firecrackers, so that Nian Beasts dare not come again. In The Book of Songs Xiaoya Tingliao, there is a record of "the light of Tingliao". The so-called "pavilion" is a torch made of bamboo poles and the like. After the bamboo pole burns, the air in the bamboo joint expands, and the bamboo cavity bursts, making a crackling sound, which is the origin of "firecrackers". However, villagers in some places don't know that Nian beast is afraid of red and is often eaten by Nian beast. This incident later spread to the sky in Wei Zi. In order to save people, he is determined to destroy Nian beast. One year the beast came out, knocked it down with a fireball and chained it to a stone pillar with a thick chain. From then on, every New Year, people always burn incense and ask Zixing to come down to keep safe.

This phenomenon has gradually become a continuation custom of "Chinese New Year" and "New Year greetings". The custom of "Happy New Year" is rich in content. The usual order is: "worship heaven and earth first, then ancestors, then Gaotang, and then go out to visit relatives and friends." There are also various kinds of pay attention to family worship on the first day, Yue family worship on the second day and relatives worship on the third day until the fifteenth day of the first month.

Another way of saying it is:

In ancient China calligraphy, the word "Nian" was placed in the Grain Department, indicating that the weather was favorable and the crops were plentiful. Because cereal crops are usually harvested once a year. "Year" is extended to the name of the year.

Although there was a custom of Spring Festival in ancient China, it was not called Spring Festival at that time. Because the Spring Festival referred to at that time refers to the "beginning of spring" among the 24 solar terms.

The Northern and Southern Dynasties generally referred to the Spring Festival as the whole spring. It is said that the Lunar New Year was officially named Spring Festival after the Revolution of 1911. Because the solar calendar was used at that time, the first day of the first lunar month had to be renamed as "Spring Festival" in order to distinguish between farmers and farmers.

Lantern Festival: It is a big festival among the traditional festivals in China, which is quite prominent. Lantern Festival is named because its festival activities are held on the fifteenth night of the first month of each year.

Lantern Festival is also called "Lantern Festival" and "Lantern Festival", because the main activity of this festival is to light lights at night, hence the name. In addition, the Lantern Festival is also called "Shangyuan" and "Shangyuan Festival", which is borrowed from Taoism.

There are different opinions about the formation of the Lantern Festival custom, but it was roughly formed in the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty offered sacrifices to a god named Taiyi. It is said that Taiyi was a very prominent god at that time, ranking above the five emperors and owing to the Han emperor, so he was greatly worshipped. According to legend, another Emperor Wendi of the Han Dynasty was also related to the Lantern Festival.

Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty was a general, Zhou Bo. He succeeded to the throne and quelled the "Zhu Lu rebellion". The day when the rebellion was quelled was the fifteenth day of the first month. Therefore, every night on the fifteenth day of the first month, Emperor Wen of Han would go out to play in the palace and have fun with the people. This day was designated as the Lantern Festival. But there is no record of lighting or setting fire on the fifteenth night of the first month, which is related to these two Han emperors. Another Han Emperor, Emperor Hanming, ordered the Lantern Festival to be lit, thus forming the custom of lighting and watching lanterns in later generations.