What are the origins and customs of the Spring Festival?

The Spring Festival originated from the primitive belief and worship of nature of early human beings, and evolved from the sacrifice of praying for the New Year at the beginning of ancient times. In addition, there is a legend that in ancient China, there was a beast called Nian, which would climb ashore every New Year's Eve, devour livestock and hurt people's lives, so people helped the old and the young escape to the mountains. One year on New Year's Eve, a begging old man stayed at Dongtou's house in the village for one night and drove Nian beast away with firecrackers. Since then, people have set off firecrackers to celebrate every New Year's Eve. In addition, there is also a saying that one day more than 2000 BC, Shun followed the leader of the tribal alliance and led his men to worship heaven and earth. Since then, people have regarded this day as the first day of the first month (the beginning of the first month) and later called it the Spring Festival.

Chinese New Year has a long history. In the process of inheritance and development, some relatively fixed customs have been formed, many of which have been passed down to this day, such as buying new year's goods, sweeping dust, pasting new year's red, eating New Year's Eve, celebrating New Year's Eve, dancing dragons and lions, worshipping gods and ancestors, praying for disaster relief, worshiping gods, racing boats, temple fairs, playing gongs and drums, cursor flags, lighting lamps and pouring wine and so on. Traditional festival ceremonies and related custom activities are important contents of festival elements, bearing rich and colorful festival cultural connotations.