Is New Year’s Day the Spring Festival?

No. It can be distinguished from the following aspects

1. From a time point of view: New Year's Day is January 1 of the Gregorian calendar; Lantern Festival is the fifteenth of the first month of the lunar calendar.

2. From the perspective of celebration content: New Year’s Day celebrates the arrival of the new year; Lantern Festival celebrates the first full moon day of the year and celebrates family reunion.

3. From a scope perspective, New Year's Day is commonly known as "New Year" in most countries around the world; Lantern Festival is the last important festival in the Chinese Spring Festival customs.

4. From the perspective of celebration methods, New Year’s Day is designated as a legal holiday and has a day off. Some organizations will hold New Year’s Day parties, hang slogans celebrating New Year’s Day, or hold group activities; the Lantern Festival will include eating Lantern Festival, watching Lanterns, charades, lion shows and other activities.

The Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China. It existed as early as more than 2,000 years ago in the Western Han Dynasty. Lantern viewing began during the period of Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Emperor Ming advocated Buddhism. I heard that in Buddhism, monks watch the Buddha on the 15th day of the first lunar month. Relics and the practice of lighting lamps to worship Buddha were ordered to light lamps in palaces and temples to worship Buddha on this night, and the nobles and common people were ordered to hang lamps. Later, this kind of Buddhist ritual festival gradually became a grand folk festival.

This festival has experienced the development process from the palace to the folk, and from the Central Plains to the whole country. ?During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month was designated as the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrificial activities for "Taiyi God" were held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. (Taiyi: God who controls everything in the universe). When Sima Qian created the "Taichu Calendar", he had already identified the Lantern Festival as a major festival.

As for New Year's Day, the term "New Year's Day" first appeared in the "Book of Jin" in Chinese history. "New Year's Day" in Chinese history refers to the "first day of the first month". The calculation method of "first month" was very inconsistent before the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the New Year's Day dates in the past dynasties were inconsistent. Starting from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the first month of the lunar calendar was designated as the "first month", and the first day of January was called New Year's Day, which was still used until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

After the Revolution of 1911, in order to "make Xia Zhengzheng, so it follows the agricultural season, and follow the Western calendar, so it is convenient for statistics", it was decided to use the Gregorian calendar in the first year of the Republic of China (actually used in 1912), and stipulated that January 1 of the Gregorian calendar It is called "New Year", but it is not called "New Year's Day". In 1949, the People's Republic of China adopted January 1st of the Gregorian calendar as New Year's Day. Therefore, "New Year's Day" is also called "Gregorian Year", "New Calendar Year" or "Gregorian Calendar Year" in China.