Chinese festival

The first solar term in the first year: Dachun

(The first solar term every year is "beginning of spring", which is usually called Dachun. Why do you call it that? There is a custom in the history of our country. On this day in beginning of spring every year, people put on holiday clothes, carry a big paper cow, and March in the streets singing and dancing. After the parade, the paper-covered cattle were carried to the court of the county government, and were whipped three times by the county official Xin Zi, which means: spring returns, hurry to farm. Therefore, people call beginning of spring "DaChun". )

January 1st: New Year's Day

(The word "New Year's Day" originated from Xiao Ziyun's poem "Jieya" in the Southern Dynasties: "New Year's Day with Four Spirits, Long Life at the Beginning of Today". Yuan is the beginning, the first meaning; Dan is a knowing word, with the "sun" above representing the sun and the "one" below representing the horizon. The sun rises from the horizon, symbolizing the beginning of the day. New Year's Day is the first day of the year.

January 1st of Gregorian calendar is recognized as New Year's Day in the world today. Chinese New Year's Day dates are not consistent. For example, the Xia Dynasty is the first day of the first month; Shang dynasty was on the first day of December; The Zhou Dynasty is on the first day of November, and so on. On September 27th, 1949, the first plenary session of China People's Political Association adopted the "A.D. Chronology Law" and designated January 1st of the Gregorian calendar as New Year's Day. )

The 15th day of the first lunar month: Lantern Festival

(also known as "Shangyuan Festival", that is, the 15th day of the first lunar month. It is an important traditional festival in China. In ancient books, this day is called Shangyuan, and its night is called Yuanye, Yuanxi or Yuanxiao. The name Yuanxiao has been used ever since. Because Lantern Festival has the custom of putting up and watching lanterns, it is also known as "Lantern Festival" among the people. In addition, there are customs such as eating Yuanxiao, walking on stilts and solve riddles on the lanterns. The ancient calendar in China is closely related to the phases of the moon. On the fifteenth day of each month, people greet the first full moon night of the year, which is naturally regarded as an auspicious day. As early as the Han Dynasty, the fifteenth day of the first month has been used as a day for offering sacrifices to God and praying for blessings. Later, the ancients called the fifteenth day of the first month Shang Yuan, the fifteenth day of July Zhong Yuan and the fifteenth day of October Xia Yuan. At the latest, in the early Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sanyuan was the day to hold a grand ceremony. Of the three elements, Shangyuan is the most valued. Later, the celebrations of Zhongyuan and Xiayuan were gradually abolished, while Shangyuan was enduring. )

March 8th: Women's Day

March 12th: Arbor Day

The day before Tomb-Sweeping Day: Cold Food

(a festival in the old customs, the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day [two days before Qingming Festival]. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhong Er, the son of the State of Jin, who had been exiled for many years, returned to China and acceded to the throne [that is, Jin Wengong], honoring the courtiers who died with him, except for the introduction. Jie Zhitui then lived in seclusion with his mother in Mianshan [now southeast of Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province]. When Jin Wengong learned of this, he wanted to raise the reward. He found Mianshan, but he couldn't find him, so he wanted to burn the mountain to force him out. However, Jiezhi couldn't stick to it, and as a result, both mother and son were burned to death. Jin Wengong therefore stipulates that people are forbidden to cook on fire on this day every year to express their mourning with cold food. Later, the custom of eating cold food and sweeping graves on the day of cold food was formed. )

April 5th: Tomb-Sweeping Day

(Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional festival in China, and it is also the most important festival for offering sacrifices to ancestors and sweeping graves. Grave-sweeping is commonly known as going to the grave and offering sacrifices to the dead. Most of the Han people and some ethnic minorities visit graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day. According to the old custom, when sweeping graves, people should bring food, wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to their relatives' graves, then incinerate the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, fold a few green branches and insert them in the graves, then kowtow and worship, and finally eat food and drink and go home. The poem Qingming by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said: "It rains in abundance during the Qingming Festival, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Ask the local people where to buy wine and worry? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village. " Write the special atmosphere of Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known as an outing festival, is between April 4th and 6th every year according to the solar calendar, which is the season when the spring is bright and the vegetation is green, and it is also a good time for people to have a spring outing [called an outing in ancient times], so the ancients had the custom of going for an outing in Qingming and carrying out a series of sports activities. )

May 1st: Labor Day

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month: Dragon Boat Festival

(The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival. The real name of "Dragon Boat Festival" is "Duanwu", which means the beginning. "Five" and "noon" are homophonic and universal. It is an ancient festival in China. After Qu Yuan

, the earliest patriotic poet in ancient China, was exiled by slanderers, he witnessed the increasingly corrupt politics of Chu State, and was unable to realize his political ideal and save the endangered motherland, so he threw himself into the Guluo River to die. Since then, in order to prevent fish and shrimp from eating their bodies, people have kneaded glutinous rice and flour into cakes of various shapes and put them into the heart of the river, which became the source of eating zongzi and fried cakes during the Dragon Boat Festival. This custom has spread abroad. )

June 1st: Children's Day

July 1st: China * * * Party Building Day

July 7th: China People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression Memorial Day

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month: Qixi Valentine's Day

(The evening of July 7th in the lunar calendar is called "Qixi". According to Chinese folklore, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl met at the Queqiao Bridge in Tianhe this night. Later, there were customs such as women asking Vega for a needle on this night. The so-called begging for cleverness means threading a needle at Vega with colored thread in the moonlight. If you can pass through seven needle holes of different sizes, it will be "clever". The farmer's proverb says, "The seventh day of July is clear and bright, and the sickle is grinded to cut the rice." It's time to sharpen the sickle and get ready to harvest early rice. )

July 13th of the lunar calendar: Respect for the Elderly

August 1st: China Army Day

August 15th of the lunar calendar: Mid-Autumn Festival

(August 15th of the lunar calendar is in the middle of autumn, so it is called "Mid-Autumn Festival". At night, the moon is full in Gui Xiang, which is regarded by the old customs as a symbol of happy reunion. It is a festival to enjoy the moon by preparing all kinds of fruits and cooked food. Eat moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival. According to legend, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, in order to overthrow the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty, the broad masses of people wrote the date of the uprising on a piece of paper and put it in the stuffing of moon cakes, so as to secretly pass it on to each other and call on everyone to revolt on August 15th. Finally, on this day, a nationwide peasant uprising broke out, overthrowing the decadent Yuan Dynasty rule. Since then, the custom of eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival has spread more widely. )

the ninth day of the ninth lunar month: Double Ninth Festival

(the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. In ancient China, nine was the sun, and September 9 was the sun of the cloudy moon, hence the name "Chongyang". According to legend, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Runan people were in the shadow, they heard Fei Changfang tell him that there would be a great disaster in Runan on September 9, so they quickly asked their families to sew a small generation, put cornus in it, tie it on their arms, climb the mountain and drink chrysanthemum wine, so as to take refuge. On this day, the whole family climbed the mountain and went home at night. Sure enough, all the chickens, dogs and sheep in the family died. Since then, there have been folk customs such as making cornus's generation, drinking chrysanthemum wine, holding temple fairs, climbing mountains and so on. Because "Gao" and "Gao" have the same sound, there is a custom of eating "Chongyang cake" on the Double Ninth Festival. In the Tang Dynasty, the poet Wang Weiyou wrote a poem "on the mountain holiday thinking of my brothers in shandong": "Being a stranger alone in a foreign land, I miss my family twice every festive season. I know from afar where my brother climbed, and there was one less person in the dogwood. " Recorded the customs and habits at that time. Because of its sincere feelings, the poem has been well-known so far. )

September 1th: Teacher's Day

October 1st: National Day

Lunar November 22nd: Winter Solstice

(In ancient China, the winter solstice was very important, and it was regarded as a big festival. There was a saying that the winter solstice was as big as a year, and there was a custom to celebrate it. "Han Shu" said: "The sun is shining on the winter solstice, and the monarch is long, so congratulations." People think that after the winter solstice, the days are getting longer and the sun's spirit is rising, which is the beginning of a solar cycle and an auspicious day and should be celebrated. It is recorded in the Book of Jin that "the Winter Solstice of Wei, Jin, was congratulated by all countries and hundreds of people ... its appearance was inferior to that of Zhengdan." Explain the importance attached to the winter solstice in ancient times.

Now, some places still celebrate the winter solstice as a festival. The northern region has the custom of slaughtering sheep in the winter solstice, eating jiaozi and wonton, while the southern region has the habit of eating rice balls and long noodles in the winter solstice on this day. There is also the custom of offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors on the winter solstice in various regions. )

the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month: Laba Festival

(In ancient times, the sacrifice to the "gods" in December was called La, so the twelfth lunar month was called the twelfth lunar month. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the old custom is to drink Laba porridge. Legend has it that Sakyamuni became a Buddha on this day, so every time the temple cooked porridge for the Buddha on this day, the folk followed suit and became a custom until today. )

Lunar New Year's Eve in December: New Year's Eve

(New Year's Eve is called New Year's Eve. In addition, the original meaning is "go" and the extension is "change" [alternation]; The original meaning of the word "evening" is "sunset" and it is extended to "night". Therefore, on New Year's Eve, it means "the old year will be removed here, and the new year will be replaced tomorrow". "except" means to get rid of the old cloth and make new ones. New Year's Eve originated from the "expulsion" in the pre-Qin period. According to Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals and Ji Dong Ji, on the day before the New Year, the ancients used drums to drive away the "ghost of plague", so that the next year would be disease-free and disaster-free. This is the origin of "New Year's Eve" Festival. In ancient times, there were many nicknames for "New Year's Eve", such as "except night", "except by night", "except by year", "except by year", and so on. Although there are many names, they always mean to send the old and welcome the new, and to eliminate diseases and disasters. )

The first day of the first lunar month: Spring Festival

(It is the first year of the lunar calendar, commonly known as "New Year's Day". The origin of the Spring Festival has a history of about 4, years in China. It is the most lively and grand traditional festival among Chinese people. The Spring Festival in ancient times refers to the "beginning of spring" season in the 24 solar terms of the lunar calendar. It was not until the Northern and Southern Dynasties that the Spring Festival was changed to the end of the year, which generally refers to the whole spring. At this time, spring returns and Vientiane were renewed, and people took it as the beginning of a new year. In the early years of the Republic of China after the Revolution of 1911, after the lunar calendar was changed to Gregorian calendar, the first day of the first month was designated as the Spring Festival. It was not until September 27th, 1949 that the China People's Political Consultative Conference officially designated the New Year on the first day of the first month as the "Spring Festival", so many people still call it the Spring Festival. )

Year:

Everyone often refers to celebrating the Spring Festival as "Chinese New Year", but the original meaning of "Year" is totally different from today. It is said that in ancient times, there was one of the most ferocious beasts in the world called Nian. It grows bigger than a camel. Run faster than the wind and roar louder than thunder. When it comes out, people eat people and animals are injured, and people's lives are seriously threatened. In order to punish Nian, the gods locked it in the deep mountains and allowed it to come out only once a year. In the long-term practice, people have found that Nian has three fears-fear of red color, fear of noise and fear of fire. So, one year on the thirtieth night of the twelfth lunar month, everyone posted red paper at the door, kept beating gongs and drums and setting off firecrackers, and lit lights all night in the house at night. "nian" came to have a look at the evening, and every family was brightly lit; Hearing this, the sound of shooting everywhere scared it into the village. During the day, it sneaked down the mountain again, only to find that the door was still red and drummed everywhere, which frightened it and turned around and ran back. Since then, "Nian" has never dared to come again. It is said that he starved to death in the deep mountains and forests. Later, people turned the prevention of "Year" and "Drive Year" into a safe and steady New Year. "Nian" is gone, but the custom of Chinese New Year remains. Bright red Spring Festival couplets, brilliant lights, crisp firecrackers, loud gongs and drums, year after year. )

wow, I found out these traditional festivals after looking for a lot of information, and I learned about ancient festivals while typing. That's how they all came about.