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Spring Festival, commonly known as "Chinese New Year", is the most grand celebration of the Chinese nation.

Unification day. Since the first year of Emperor Taizu of the Han Dynasty, the first day of the first month of the Xia Dynasty (lunar calendar) has been regarded as "Year", and the date of the annual festival has been fixed and continues to this day. New Year's Day was called "New Year's Day" in ancient times. After the Revolution of 1911, 19 1 1 adopted the Gregorian calendar to calculate the year, so it was called "New Year's Day" on the Gregorian calendar 1 and "Spring Festival" on the first day of the first lunar month. The 20-year-old festival is also called a "traditional festival". They have a long history, spread widely and have the characteristics of great popularity, mass and even the whole people. New Year's Day is a new day to get rid of old cloth. Although this festival is arranged on the first day of the first lunar month, its activities are not limited to the first day of the first lunar month. From the beginning of the Lunar New Year's Day on the 23rd (or 24th) of the twelfth lunar month, people began to "be busy": sweeping the floor, washing their hair and taking a bath, preparing new year's utensils and so on. All these activities have a common theme, that is, "saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new". People greet the new year and spring with grand ceremony and enthusiasm. New Year's Day is also a day to pray for the new year. The ancients said that a mature millet is a "year" and a bumper harvest of grains is a "big year". In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was an annual harvest celebration. Later, New Year greetings became one of the main contents of the annual customs. Besides, the Kitchen God, Door God, God of Wealth, XiShen, Well God and other gods. Everyone enjoys human incense during the festival. People take this opportunity to thank the gods for their care in the past and pray for more blessings in the new year. New Year's Day is also a time for family reunion, family worship and ancestor worship. On New Year's Eve, the whole family get together to have a "reunion dinner". The elders give "lucky money" to the children, and the family sit around and "watch". At the turn of the New Year's Day, firecrackers exploded, and the activities to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new reached a climax. Every family burns incense to worship the heavens and the earth and ancestors, then pays tribute to the elders in turn, and then congratulates relatives and friends. After the Yuan Dynasty, we began to visit relatives and friends and exchange gifts to celebrate the New Year. New Year's Day is a festival for people to entertain and revel. After the January Festival, a variety of colorful entertainment activities were launched, such as playing with lions, dragon lanterns, yangko dancing, walking on stilts and juggling, which added a rich festive atmosphere to the Spring Festival.

The festive atmosphere. At this time, it happened to be around the "beginning of spring". In ancient times, a grand ceremony was held to welcome the spring, whipping cattle to welcome the spring, and praying for good weather and abundant crops. All kinds of social fire activities reached their climax again on the fifteenth day of the first month. Therefore, the grand New Year Festival, which integrates blessing, celebration and entertainment, has become the most grand festival of the Chinese nation. Nowadays, in addition to offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, the main customs of the festival have been well inherited and developed. The Spring Festival is an important carrier of the excellent tradition of Chinese culture, which contains the wisdom and crystallization of Chinese culture, embodies the life pursuit and emotional sustenance of China people, and inherits the family ethics and social ethics of China people. After thousands of years of accumulation, the colorful folk customs of the Spring Festival have formed a profound and unique Spring Festival culture. In recent years, with the improvement of material living standards, people's demand for spiritual and cultural life has increased rapidly, and their desire for affection, friendship, harmony and happiness has become stronger. Traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival have attracted more and more attention from all walks of life. We should vigorously carry forward the excellent traditional culture condensed in the Spring Festival, highlight the theme of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, wishing reunion and peace and prosperity, strive to create a festive atmosphere of family harmony, stability and unity, joy and peace, and promote the sustained and continuous development and growth of Chinese culture. [ 1]

history

In China, the beginning of the Lunar New Year is called the Spring Festival. It is the most solemn traditional festival of China people, and it also symbolizes unity, prosperity and new hope for the future. According to records, people in China have been celebrating the Spring Festival for more than 4,000 years. There are many theories about the origin of the Spring Festival, but one widely accepted by the public is that the Spring Festival began in Yu Shun. One day more than 2000 BC, Shun became emperor and led his men to worship heaven and earth. Since then, people have regarded this day as the beginning of a year. It is said that this is the origin of the Lunar New Year, which was later called the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival used to be called New Year's Day. The month in which the Spring Festival is held is called January. The dates of New Year's Day in China are different: January in Meng Chun was the first month in Xia Dynasty, December in Shang Dynasty, and October after Qin Shihuang unified the six countries. At the beginning of Han Dynasty, Sun Yat-sen, an oil painter in Qin Dynasty, became the interim president.

Calendar Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, thought the calendar was too messy, so he ordered his ministers Gong Sunqing and Sima Qian to draw up a "solar calendar", which stipulated that the first month of the lunar calendar was the first year, and the first day of the first month was the first day of the year, which was New Year's Day. Since then, China has been using the Gregorian calendar (also known as the lunar calendar) until the end of the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for 2080. Spring Festival has different names in different times. In the pre-Qin period, it was called "going to Japan", "January Day", "changing the year" and "offering the year". In the Han Dynasty, it was also called "Three Dynasties", "Sui Dan", "Zheng Dan" and "Zhengri". Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were called Chen Yuan, Yuan Ri, Fuehrer and Sui Dynasty. In the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, it was called New Year's Day, Yuan, New Year's Day and Singapore dollar. In the Qing Dynasty, it was always called "New Year's Day" or "Yuan Day". 19 12 When Sun Yat-sen became the provisional president of the Republic of China in Nanjing, he announced the abolition of the old calendar and used the Gregorian calendar to mark the year of the Republic of China. And decided to take 1 91265438+10/month1as the first year of the Republic of China. January 1st is called New Year's Day, but not New Year's Day. However, people still use the old calendar, that is, the summer calendar, and still celebrate the traditional New Year on February 18 of that year (the first day of the first month of the year of Renzi), and other traditional festivals remain unchanged. In view of this, 19 13 In July (the second year of the Republic of China), the then Beijing government, as the chief of the interior, submitted a report on the four-season holiday to President Yuan Shikai, saying: "It is an old custom to celebrate the four-season holiday every year in China, that is, it should be clearly stipulated that Lunar New Year's Day is the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival is the summer, Mid-Autumn Festival is the autumn, and winter solstice is the winter, but Yuan Shikai only approved the beginning of the first month. Since then, the beginning of the summer calendar has been called "Spring Festival". 1949 On September 27th, the first plenary session of China People's Political Consultative Conference decided to adopt the world calendar year while establishing the People's Republic of China (PRC). In order to distinguish between the solar calendar and the lunar calendar, the first day of the solar calendar is called "New Year's Day" and the first day of the first lunar month is officially renamed as "Spring Festival" because the "beginning of spring" in the 24 solar terms is just around the lunar year. The earth goes around the sun once, which is called a year in the calendar, and it goes on and on, never ending. However, according to the different weather in spring, summer, autumn and winter, people hold the first plenary session of China People's Political Consultative Conference on the first day of the first lunar month.

At the beginning of the year Every year, after midnight (12 o'clock) on February 30th (February 29th of the lunar calendar), the Spring Festival officially arrives. Near the Spring Festival, people buy new year's goods. On New Year's Eve, the whole family get together for dinner. New Year pictures and Spring Festival couplets; Welcome the new year. With the founding of New China, the Spring Festival celebrations are more colorful. It not only retains the past folk customs, excludes some activities with feudal superstition, but also adds many new contents. Give the Spring Festival a new flavor of the times. 1949 65438+February 23rd The government of People's Republic of China (PRC) and People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that there will be three days off during the Spring Festival every year. China is a multi-ethnic country, and each ethnic group has different ways to celebrate the New Year. The customs and habits of the Han nationality, Manchu nationality and Korean nationality for the Spring Festival are similar. The family is reunited. People eat rice cakes, jiaozi and various sumptuous meals, set off firecrackers and wish each other well. Celebrations during the Spring Festival are extremely colorful, including lion dance and dragon dance, as well as walking on stilts and running dry boats. In some areas, people follow the activities of worshipping ancestors and gods in the past and pray for good weather, peace and good harvest in the new year. Ancient Mongols called the Spring Festival "White Festival" and the first month was Bai Yue, which means good luck. Tibetans celebrate the Tibetan calendar year. Hui, Uygur, Kazak, etc. Celebrate Eid al-Adha. The Spring Festival is also a grand festival for Miao, Yi and Yao people. [2]

One legend is that ...

Stick to the end of this year.

stay up late or all night on New Year's Eve

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 Archean, there was a fierce monster scattered in the mountains, which people called "Nian". Its appearance is ferocious, its nature is ferocious, and it specializes in eating birds, animals and insects. It changes its taste every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian". Later, people gradually mastered the activity law of "Nian", that is, every 365 days, people go to places where people live in concentrated communities to taste fresh food. The haunting time is after dark, and when the rooster crows at dawn, they return to the mountains. After determining the date of the ravages of 2008, people regarded this terrible night as a gateway, and came up with a set of methods to close the New Year's Day: every family prepared dinner in advance, turned off the fire, cleaned the stove, then tied all the cowpeas, sealed the front and back doors of the house, and hid in the house to eat the "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 for two years, five hours for two years." People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and epidemics 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. Longevity star pictures

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 360, 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 up the Shou Xingtu during the Chinese New Year, which is said to commemorate the venerable ten thousand years.

Sticking Spring Festival couplets and door gods

It is said that the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets began in the post-Shu period about 1000 years ago, which is proved by history. In addition, according to the Jade Candle Collection and the Chronicle of Yanjing, the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Fu Tao". In the ancient mythology of China, it is said that there is a ghost world, in which there is a mountain, a big peach tree covering three thousand miles, and a golden rooster at the top of the tree. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghost who travels at night will rush back to the ghost domain. The Gate of Ghost Domain is located in the northeast of Peach Tree District. There are two gods standing by the door, named Shen Tu and Lei Yu. If the ghost does something unnatural at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately find it, catch it, tie it up with a rope made of Miscanthus and give it to the tiger. So all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. So people carved them into peach trees and put them at their doorsteps to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm. Later, people simply carved the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the mahogany board, thinking that this could also eliminate disasters. This kind of red board was later called "Fu Tao". Qin and Weichi Gong.

In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on mahogany boards, one for killing evil spirits, the other for expressing good wishes, and the third for decorating the portal for beauty. They also write couplets on red paper symbolizing happiness and good luck, and stick them on both sides of doors and windows during the Spring Festival to express people's good wishes for good luck in the coming year. In order to pray for the longevity of the family, people in some places still keep the habit of sticking up doors. It is said that there are two door gods posted on the gate, and all monsters will be afraid. In the folk, the door god is a symbol of justice and strength. The ancients thought that people with strange looks often had magical temperament and extraordinary skills. They are honest and kind, and it is their nature and responsibility to catch ghosts and demons. Zhong Kui, a ghost hunter who is highly regarded by people, is such a strange look. Therefore, the folk door gods are always glaring and ferocious, holding all kinds of traditional weapons in their hands, ready to fight against ghosts who dare to come to the door. Because the doors of China's house are usually two opposite doors, the door gods are always paired. After the Tang Dynasty, besides peace, people also regarded Qin and Weichi Gong, two military commanders in the Tang Dynasty, as gatekeepers. According to legend, Emperor Taizong was ill, heard ghosts screaming outside, and stayed up all night. So he asked the two generals to stand by with weapons in their hands, and there was no ghost harassment the next night. Later, Emperor Taizong had the images of these two generals painted and pasted on the door, and this custom began to spread widely among the people.

The Legend of Fu Tao

Fu Tao

In the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi wrote in the poem "January Day": "Every day, new peaches are always replaced with old ones." Describe the light on the first day. The "peach" and "symbol" in the poem are intertextual, which means that the new peach symbol is always replaced by the old one-the old one is replaced by the new one. There is a beautiful legend about Fu Tao. Long ago, Dushuo Mountain in the East China Sea had beautiful scenery, and there was a peach forest on the mountain. Among them, there is a huge peach tree, flourishing and winding for three thousand miles. Peaches are big and sweet. If people eat peaches from trees, they can become immortals. One dark night, a ghost with blue face and fangs, red hair and green eyes tried to steal Xiantao. The owners of Taolin, Shen Tu and Lei Yu, used peach branches to play ghosts, tied ghosts with straw ropes and fed tigers to watch the mountains. From then on, the names of the two brothers scared ghosts and became immortals who specialized in punishing evil and promoting good after death. Later generations painted two immortals, Shen Tu and Lei Yu, on a mahogany board one inch wide and seven or eight inches long to ward off evil spirits. This kind of red board is called "Fu Tao". With the changes of the times, Fu Tao itself is changing. Later, people wrote the names of two immortals on the Fu Tao instead of portraits. Later, it developed into "Inscription of Fu Tao", that is, short poems with equal words, symmetrical structure and corresponding meanings were inscribed on Fu Tao, which was the predecessor of Spring Festival couplets.

Ancient New Year cards

New Year cards, which are popular in modern society, have been implemented in ancient China. As early as the Song Dynasty, New Year greeting cards, as a special way of greeting the New Year, were used between the families and relatives of imperial nobles and literati, and were called "famous thorns" or "famous stickers". It is to cut plum blossom stationery into cards about two inches wide and three inches long, and write your name and address on them. A red paper bag called "door book" is attached to each door, with the owner's name written on it to receive the name thorn (name sticker). The worshippers write their names on the register, which means to pay a New Year call. Its meaning is the same as that of modern New Year cards. [3]

process

Twenty-three and twenty-four of the twelfth lunar month

Xiaonian Kitchen God (16) The 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month, also called Xiaonian, is the day when people worship the kitchen. The folk song "Twenty-three, Melon Stick" refers to the sacrificial stove on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month every year. There is a saying that "officials, three people, four boatmen and five", that is, on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the government held a sacrifice to the kitchen, on the 24th, the general public, and on the 25th, the boat was built. Off-year is the beginning and foreshadowing of the whole Spring Festival celebration, and there are two main activities: sweeping the New Year and offering sacrifices to stoves. In addition, there is the custom of eating stove candy. In some places, we also eat fire, sugar cakes, oil cakes and tofu soup. Offering sacrifices to stoves is a very popular custom in China. In the past, almost every kitchen had a kitchen god. People call this god "the Bodhisattva who commands life" or "the stove commands life". It is said that he is the "Nine-day East Chef Commanding the Kitchen Palace" sealed by the Jade Emperor, who is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of various families and is worshipped as the patron saint of the family. Kitchen shrines are mostly located in the north or east of the kitchen, with the idol of Kitchen God in the middle. Some people who don't have the niche of the Kitchen King even put the idol directly on the wall. Some gods only draw a kitchen god, while others have two men and women. The goddess is called "Grandma Chef". The sacrificial furnace on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is closely related to the New Year in China. Because, a week later, on New Year's Eve, Kitchen God came to the world with good or bad luck that the whole family should get, and steamed steamed steamed buns with other gods (19). Kitchen God is considered to guide the gods in the sky. Other gods have ascended to heaven after the Chinese New Year, and only Kitchen God will stay in other people's kitchens for a long time. The ceremony of welcoming God is called "receiving God", and the kitchen god is called "receiving kitchen". Generally, it is New Year's Eve to pick up the kitchen, and the ceremony is much simpler. At that time, just put on a new stove lamp and burn incense in front of the stove niche. As the saying goes, "Men don't Yue Bai, women don't sacrifice to the kitchen". In some places, women don't sacrifice stoves. It is said that the kitchen god looks like a small white face and is afraid of women offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, which is "suspected of men and women." People pay attention to eating jiaozi on the Festival of Sacrificing Kitchen, which means "Look at the windward side of jiaozi". Eat more cakes and buckwheat noodles in mountainous areas. In the southeast of Shanxi, the custom of eating fried corn is popular. There is a saying in the folk proverb called "Twenty-three, don't eat fried corn, pour a pot at the beginning of the new year". People like to bond fried corn with maltose and freeze it into pieces, which tastes crisp and sweet. After the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every household should steam steamed bread. Generally speaking, it can be divided into two types: worshipping God and visiting relatives. The former is solemn, while the latter is gorgeous. Especially to make a jujube hill for Kitchen God. "A steamed bread, neighbors to help". This is often a great opportunity for folk women to show their dexterity. Steamed bread is a handicraft. After writing Spring Festival couplets on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, every household should write Spring Festival couplets. People pay attention to it, and God will stick it, and doors will stick it, and things will stick it, so Spring Festival couplets have the largest number and the most complete content. The couplets in front of the statues are particularly particular, and they are mostly words of admiration and blessing. The vulgar god is the god of heaven and earth, "the grace of heaven is as deep as the sea, and the virtue of posting Spring Festival couplets (twenty pieces) is as heavy as a mountain"; The land god "white jade is born in the soil, and gold is born in the ground"; God of wealth "God of wealth in heaven, God of wealth on earth"; Jing Shenlian "The well can pass through the four seas, and the home can pass through the three rivers". The Spring Festival couplets in granaries and barns all express warm congratulations and hopes, such as "five crops are abundant and six livestock are prosperous"; "The rice surface is as thick as a mountain, and the oil and salt are as deep as the sea"; "Nanshan cattle are like tigers, Beihai Ma Rulong"; "Big sheep flourish every year, and little sheep increase every month" and so on. There are also some single couplets, such as "Looking up to see happiness" in each room, "Going out to see happiness" across the door, "Prosperity is soaring to the sky" on the fire, "The courtyard is full of gold" on the tree, and "Deep-rooted foliage" on the stone mill. The couplets on the gate are the facade of a family, which are particularly exquisite, lyrical or picturesque, rich in content and witty. Eating stove candy is a kind of maltose, which is very sticky. The candy that is drawn into a long strip is called "Guandong Sugar", and the candy that is drawn into a flat circle is called "Tanggua". When it is put outside in winter, because of the cold weather, the honeydew melon is solidified firmly, and there are some tiny bubbles in it, which tastes crisp and sweet and has a special flavor. The real kwantung candy is too hard to break.