The origins and customs of Chinese New Year's Day

Today is New Year's Day, commonly known as "New Year" in most countries around the world. It is the first day of the new year in the Gregorian calendar. Yuan means "first"; Dan means "day"; "New Year's Day" means "first day". The word "New Year's Day" first appeared in "Book of Jin", but its meaning has been used for more than 4,000 years.

In ancient China, the first days of the twelfth lunar month and October were used as New Year's Day. From Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it was January 1 of the lunar calendar. From the Republic of China, it was January 1 of the Gregorian calendar. In 1949, the People's Republic of China China also takes January 1st of the Gregorian calendar as New Year's Day, so New Year's Day is also called the "Gregorian Year" in China.

Origin of New Year's Day

Chinese New Year's Day has always referred to the first day of the first lunar month in the agricultural (summer and lunar) calendar. "Yuan" in "New Year's Day" refers to the beginning, meaning first. The beginning of New Year's Day is called "Yuan"; "Dan" is a pictographic character. The "日" above represents the sun and the "一" below represents the horizon. . "Dan" means the sun rising from the horizon, symbolizing the beginning of a day.

People combine the two words "Yuan" and "Dan" to extend it to the first day of the new year. New Year's Day is also called "Three Yuan", which is the Yuan of the year, the Yuan of the month, and the Yuan of the hour.

The development of New Year's Day

The word "New Year's Day" first appeared in the "Book of Jin": "Emperor Zhuan took the first month of Mengxia as the Yuan, which is actually the spring of New Year's Day in Zhengshuo". Xin Lan, a poet of the Jin Dynasty, once wrote a poem "Yuanzheng": "On the Qingming Festival of the Yuanzheng period, Jiaqing began. Xian played the wine cup for thousands of years, and Xiao Datong was happy." It described the New Year's Day celebrations.

The poem "Jie Ya" by Xiao Ziyun of the Southern Dynasties also contains the record of "New Year's Day for all four seasons, and early spring for longevity". There is a record in Wu Zimu's "Mengliang Lu" of the Song Dynasty: "The first day of the first lunar month is called New Year's Day, and it is also called New Year's Day. This is the first day of the first year of the year."

New Year's Day Legend

It is said that during the ancient times of Yao and Shun, Emperor Yao worked diligently on the people and did many good things for the people. He was very loved by the people, but because of his Zi Wucai was not very successful. He did not pass the throne of "Emperor" to his son, but passed it to Shun, who had both moral character and ability.

Yao said to Shun: "You must pass on the throne to me from now on, so that you can rest in peace after my death." Later, Shun passed the throne to Yu, who had done great work in controlling floods, and Yu also acted like him. Shun was so kind and loving to the people that he did a lot of good things for the people and was very loved by others