What are the names of the Spring Festival in ancient times?

The Spring Festival, the Lunar New Year, is the beginning of a year and a traditional festival. Commonly known as Spring Festival, New Year, New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve and so on. Verbally, it is also called Chinese New Year's Eve. The Spring Festival has a long history, which evolved from praying for the New Year at the beginning of the year in ancient times. Everything is based on the sky, and people are based on their ancestors. It is also the opposite to pray for the ancestors who worship the sky. The origin of the Spring Festival contains profound cultural connotations, and it carries rich historical and cultural connotations in its inheritance and development. During the Spring Festival, various activities to celebrate the Spring Festival are held all over the country, with rich regional characteristics and active festive atmosphere. These activities are rich and colorful, which have condensed the essence of China traditional culture, mainly to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, exorcise evil spirits and disturb disasters, offer sacrifices to gods and ancestors, and pray for the New Year.

In the early era of observing the image and time, "bucket handle returning to the Yin" was regarded as spring (the first year), and beginning of spring was the beginning of everything, which meant all self-renewal, which meant the opening of a new cycle. In the traditional farming society, beginning of spring, the first year of the year, is of great significance, and a large number of festivals and customs related to it have been derived. In the historical development, although the calendar is different and the date of the first festival is different, its festival framework and many folk customs have been passed down. In modern times, people set the Spring Festival on the first day of the first lunar month, but generally it doesn't end until at least the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The Spring Festival is a folk festival that combines offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, praying for evil spirits, family reunion, celebration, entertainment and food.

Headed by the centennial festival, the Spring Festival is the most solemn traditional festival of the Chinese nation. Influenced by China culture, some countries and regions in the world also have the custom of celebrating the Spring Festival. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 20 countries and regions have designated the Spring Festival in China as a legal holiday in all or part of the cities under their jurisdiction. Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival are also called the four traditional festivals in China. The folk custom of Spring Festival was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

The origin of festivals

According to the research results of modern anthropology and archaeology, the two most primitive beliefs of human beings are the belief in heaven and earth and the belief in ancestors. The origin of ancient traditional festivals is related to ancient primitive beliefs, sacrificial culture, astronomical phenomena, calendars and other humanistic and natural cultural contents. Most of the traditional festivals in ancient times were formed in the activities of the ancients who chose auspicious day sacrifices to thank the gods of heaven and earth and the ancestors for their kindness. The early festival culture embodies the ancient people's humanistic spirit of advocating nature, the unity of man and nature, cautiously pursuing the future, and firmly thinking about the source; A series of sacrificial activities contain profound cultural connotations of respecting morality, ceremony and music civilization.

The concept of "sui" comes from the ancient calendar and is recorded in Pangu and Sanhui. : "the emperor of heaven began to name the main branches to determine the age." In the emperor's time, "year" was expressed as "year". Sixty-year-old, with 60-year-old Jiazi (chronology of branches and branches) as the running cycle, endless. "sui" means "social style" (the original branch), also known as "sui xing" and "tai sui" In the process of inheritance and development, future generations simplified the multi-syllable terms of this group of years into one word, and their comparison with simplified branches was recorded in Erya and Historical Records. For example, Tai Sui was taking photos, taking photos in Mao Yue, supporting Xu, abandoning his son on the fourth day, feeling depressed in the afternoon, thanking Xie Yue for the failure of negotiations, causing bad news in You Yue, castrating Mao on the first day, offering sacrifices to Dayuan in Hai Yue, and staying in Zi Yue. The ancients took heavenly stems and earthly branches as the carrier, and the heavenly stem carried the way of heaven, and the earth supported the way of the earth; In nature, it takes shape underground, in human luck; Therefore, heavenly stems and earthly branches was established to contract the fate of heaven and earth. The orientation of heaven and earth determines time and space, and ten branches and twelve branches are combined to form a 60-week calendar. December and twenty-four solar terms are its basic contents. The era of the main branch and the secondary branch began with the "Yin Jian" moon pointing to the north of the east in the barrel handle, and then rotating clockwise to start a year's course. Yin position is the root of gossip, the orientation of the end of the year and the beginning of the year, representing the end and beginning. For example, Yi Shuo Gua Zhuan says: "Gen, the divination in the northeast is also the beginning of all things." The method of the era of cadres and branches, the first month to build Yin, beginning of spring as the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month to pay the festival.

The establishment of the ancient branch calendar provided decisive conditions for the emergence of festivals, and primitive beliefs and sacrificial culture were important factors for the formation of annual festivals. The Spring Festival evolved from praying for the New Year at the beginning of the year. In ancient times, people held sacrificial activities at the beginning of the new year after a year of farming to report the kindness of gods and ancestors in heaven and earth and pray for a good year. Although the situation of ancient sacrificial ceremonies is unknown, we can still find some ancient custom relics from later festivals. For example, in some areas of Lingnan, there is a custom of paying New Year's greetings on the first day of the New Year, and there is a grand ceremony to worship the gods and ancestors during the New Year, which shows the clues of praying for the New Year in ancient times. In its original meaning, the beginning of the year refers to "beginning of spring", which is one of the 24 solar terms in the trunk and branch calendars, and beginning of spring reflects the changes in winter and spring. On that day, such as "bucket handle points to Yin", the transformation of Yin and Yang, Yang and thorn, everything is spring, which means a new cycle has begun. The formation of festivals covers humanistic philosophy and natural laws. The origin and development of the Spring Festival is a process of gradual formation, subtle improvement and popularization. As an important part of China traditional culture, Spring Festival culture reflects the profound connotation of China culture and records the rich and colorful cultural contents of ancient people's social life.

Ethnicity

Time evolution

In ancient times, the spatial changes of astronomical phenomena were used to mark the time changes of the four seasons of the year. When the bucket handle of Beidou points to Yin (due east and due north), it is the node of beginning of spring. In the era of ancient cadres and branches, Yin was built in the first month (photo by Teague). In the historical development and evolution, due to the changes of dynasties and calendars, the date of the beginning of a year (New Year) is also different. China's New Year, the date is not consistent:

In ancient times, the epoch method was taken from the age of eighteen, that is, the chronology method of cadres and branches, with silver moon as the first month and beginning of spring as the beginning of the year. After heavenly stems and earthly branches's simplification, ten days are: A, B, C, D, E, Ji, Ke, Xin, Ren and Gui, and twelve are: Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai, Zi and Ugly. Ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches are matched in turn to form a 60-week calendar. (Photographed in the era, it is now called Ganzhi Calendar, Jiazi Calendar and Gregorian Calendar; Classified as the solar calendar, also known as the China solar calendar)

Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties: January in spring is the first month of Xia Dynasty, December in Shang Dynasty and November in Zhou Dynasty. (lunar calendar)

After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, it was stipulated that October in winter was the first month. (lunar calendar)

Qin calendar (Zhuan Xu calendar) was adopted in the early Han Dynasty. In the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, namely 104 BC, astronomers, Luo, and others formulated calendars, and absorbed the solar terms of the Ganzhi calendar as a supplement to the calendar guiding farming, and restored the original October 1st in winter to January 1st in spring.

After the Han Dynasty, several emperors changed their calendars and years. After Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, it was stipulated that the new moon in December was the beginning of a year, which was stipulated by Andrew. Wei Mingdi Cao Rui was once changed to Andrew. After Wu Zetian proclaimed himself emperor, she changed her country name to "Zhou". Since then, all dynasties have been changed to Xia Zheng, with 1 month 1 day as the beginning of the year.

After several generations of development, later generations gradually improved the early calendar into the current summer calendar. Since then, China has been using the summer calendar. After 1970, the "summer calendar" was renamed as the "lunar calendar" (lunar calendar, also known as the combined calendar of yin and yang).

After the Revolution of 1911, it gradually changed to Gregorian calendar (a kind of solar calendar, also known as Gregorian calendar). Later, in order to distinguish between the two New Years, January 1st of the summer calendar was just before and after the "beginning of spring" solar term, one of the 24 solar terms in the official calendar, so January 1st of the summer calendar (lunar calendar) was renamed as "Spring Festival" and January 1st of the Gregorian calendar was renamed as "New Year's Day".

1965438+In July 2003 (the second year of the Republic of China), Zhu Qiqian, then the chief interior minister of the Beijing (the Republic of China) government, submitted a report on the four-season holiday to President Yuan Shikai, saying: "It is an old custom in China to celebrate the four-season holiday every year, that is, it should be clearly stipulated that Lunar New Year's Day is the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival is the Summer Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival is the Autumn Festival and Winter Festival. However, Yuan Shikai only approved the first day of the first month as the Spring Festival (because it was "harmony among five ethnic groups" at that time, it was not appropriate to list the Han festivals such as the Dragon Boat Festival as national festivals), and agreed to have a routine holiday for the Spring Festival, starting from 19 14. Since then, the beginning of the summer calendar has been changed from "Chinese New Year" to "Spring Festival".

Name change

After the Revolution of 1911, the northern government of the Republic of China adopted the Gregorian calendar during the period of 19 12, but it adopted the year of the Republic of China, and 65438+ 10/started the Gregorian calendar. From 19 14, the first day of the first month of the summer calendar (that is, the first day of the first lunar month) is regarded as the beginning of the lunar year, that is, the beginning of a year.

1 On September 27th, 949, the first plenary session of China People's Political Consultative Conference decided to adopt the method of "A.D. calendar year", calling the date of Gregorian calendar1as "New Year's Day" and the first day of the first month in the summer calendar as "Spring Festival".

Content development

In the ancient imperial era, there was the embryonic form of Ganzhi calendar and Nian. According to ancient books such as Pangu Wang Biao and San Tong Ming Hui, "the name of the first emperor depends on his age". Ten days later, I said, "To meet, to be enlightened, to be gentle, to be strong, to be brave, to be cruel, to be stamped, to emphasize light, to be mysterious and to be sunny"; Twelve places support: Paitige, Shan Yu, Xu Zhi, Dahuang, Tang Dun, Qi Xie, Jitan, Zuo Meng, Mao Yan, Dayuanxian, Dilemma and Chifenruo. This invention of the emperor system has a far-reaching influence, and later generations have used it in calendar, arithmetic, calculation, naming and so on (Zi Tongzhi Jian, the official history compiled by the Northern Song Dynasty, is based on this set of official terms). The invention of trunks and branches marked the emergence of the most primitive calendar, which was used to calculate the age by numbers.

Zhou Dynasty's "Poetry, Wind and July": "The rice was harvested in October, so the birthday was celebrated with spring wine. ... to clean the farm in October, ... to kill the lamb, ... to live forever. " Literature records the gathering scene of people making wine and slaughtering sheep after harvesting in October. This scene is not a festival at the beginning of the year, but November is the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. In the pre-Qin period, the customs of the north and the south were different, and the customs of various places had not been integrated, spread and popularized. The activities of saving customs at the beginning of the year are rarely recorded in the Central Plains literature.

The Han Dynasty was the first great development period after the unification of China. The economic and cultural exchanges between the North and the South make customs and habits merge with each other, which provides good social conditions for the spread and popularization of holiday customs. Since then, there have been records of year-end sacrifices in the literature. For example, Mao Cui in the Eastern Han Dynasty mentioned in the April People's Decree: "The first month is the right day. Bow to your wife and wife and worship your ancestors. " People's custom activities to celebrate the New Year in China are becoming more and more extensive and rich.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was a record of the custom of keeping old on New Year's Eve. For example, in the Local Habits Chronicle written in the early Zhou Dynasty of Jin Dynasty, it is recorded that on New Year's Eve, everyone gives gifts to each other, which is called "Feeding the Year"; Young people and old people get together and wish a complete eulogy, called "age division"; Sleeping all the year round, waiting for dawn, is called "guarding the age."

In the Tang Dynasty, people not only visited their homes to pay New Year greetings, but also invented a "New Year greeting card". Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty, made a greeting card with red gold foil and gave it to ministers as a royal book "Celebrating the World". This form soon spread among the people and changed to plum blossom stationery. At that time, this kind of "greeting card" was called "flight card".

In the Song Dynasty, people began to make "guns" (that is, firecrackers) with paper tubes and hemp sticks wrapped in gunpowder. The custom of setting off firecrackers on New Year's Eve and Spring Festival has gradually become popular. "Dream of Tokyo" said: "It is night, firecrackers are forbidden in the mountains, and the sound is heard outside."

In the Ming Dynasty, it was popular to greet the kitchen god, stick to the door god, keep watch on New Year's Eve and enjoy the Lantern Festival on the 15th. It is recorded in the annals of Wanli Jiaxing: "On New Year's Eve, door gods, peach charms and spring posts are all sealed." Firecrackers, purple burning, wine and fruit gathering and drinking, gongs and drums playing all night, are called observing the Year. "

The Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the Chinese New Year, and the court was very luxurious. The emperor had the custom of writing blessings to his ministers. China New Year doesn't end until the Lantern Festival. Solve riddles on the lanterns is a very popular form of entertainment.

The Revolution of 1911 brought a new era, and the government advocated a new calendar. In terms of etiquette, the previous etiquette of bowing or bowing was completely abolished, and it was changed into new etiquette such as taking off one's hat, bowing, shaking hands and clapping, which gradually became the civilized etiquette of interpersonal communication in China.

folk custom

Traditional folk custom

Spring Festival is an ancient festival in China, and it is also the most important festival in a year. In the historical development, it has integrated a variety of folk customs and formed some relatively fixed customs and habits, many of which are still handed down today. China is a multi-ethnic country, and each ethnic group has different ways to celebrate the New Year. The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han nationality. More than a dozen ethnic minorities, such as Manchu, Mongolian, Yao, Zhuang, Bai, Gaoshan, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong and Li, have also celebrated the Spring Festival, but the form of the festival has its own national characteristics and is more meaningful. During the Spring Festival, there are many kinds of celebrations, such as lion dancing, floating colors, dragon dancing, worshipping gods, temple fairs, visiting flower streets, enjoying lanterns, beating gongs and drums, flying flags, lighting fireworks, praying for blessings, dancing spring dance, walking on stilts, running dry boats, dancing yangko and so on. The custom of offering sacrifices to gods (ancestors) prevails in the southern coastal areas, and it inherits the ancient customs. During the Spring Festival, there are many grand activities, such as offering sacrifices to heaven and earth and praying for the Spring Festival, which are rich in content, lively and festive, and full of flavor. During the Spring Festival, you can find it everywhere, such as posting New Year's greetings, observing New Year's Eve, having a reunion dinner and paying New Year's greetings. However, due to different local customs, the nuances have their own characteristics. The folk customs of the Spring Festival are diverse and rich in content, which is a concentrated display of the essence of China people's life and culture.

Spring Festival is a new day to take off old cloth. Although it is arranged on the first day of the first lunar month, the activities of the Spring Festival are not limited to the first day of the first lunar month. From the end of the 23rd (or 24th) lunar calendar, people began to "busy year": offering sacrifices to stoves, sweeping dust, buying new year's goods, posting New Year greetings, washing their hair and taking a bath, decorating lanterns and so on. All these activities have the same theme, that is, "saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new". The Spring Festival is a joyful, peaceful and family reunion festival, and it is also a carnival festival, which is an eternal spiritual pillar for people to express their yearning for happiness and freedom. Before the festival, people who stay indoors try to go home to reunite with their loved ones and enjoy family happiness. On New Year's Eve, the whole family get together to have a "reunion dinner". The elders give the children "lucky money" and then "watch the New Year" to welcome the arrival of the New Year. During the Spring Festival, friends and relatives will visit each other to express their New Year greetings, their feelings for friends and relatives and their best wishes for life in the new year.

The Spring Festival is also a time to worship ancestors and pray for the New Year. Sacrifice is a kind of belief activity, created by ancient human survival activities, hoping to live in harmony with nature. Everything is based on heaven, and people are based on ancestors. On the basis of offering sacrifices to the gods (ancestors) in the Spring Festival and revisiting the ecological world of "harmony between man and nature" built by ancestors, people cherish and feel the sacredness and majesty of the gods (ancestors) in heaven and earth, and do not forget to shoulder the responsibility and mission of "Heaven Order" to maintain human relations and do good deeds for today's people, and they are awed and sublime. For this reason, during the very lively Spring Festival, the traditional ancestor worship culture follows the rules of ancestors, paying tribute, offering incense, bowing and saluting, which is solemn and meticulous. A series of festival ceremony procedures, in turn, represent the layer-by-layer display of festival cultural connotation, making traditional festivals solemn and meaningful.

The Spring Festival is a festival for people to entertain and revel. At the turn of the New Year's Day, various activities to celebrate the New Year, such as firecrackers, fireworks, saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new year, reached a climax. On the morning of New Year's Day, families burn incense to worship the heavens and the earth, worship their ancestors, and then pay New Year greetings to their elders in turn, and then congratulate each other with relatives and friends. After January, a variety of colorful entertainment activities have been launched, adding a rich festive atmosphere to the Spring Festival. Therefore, the Spring Festival, a grand ceremony of praying for the New Year, celebrating and entertaining, has become the most solemn festival of the Chinese nation. The warm atmosphere of the festival permeates not only every household, but also the streets and alleys around the country. In some places, there are customs such as lion dancing, playing dragon lanterns, performing social fires, visiting flower markets and temple fairs. During this period, the city was full of lanterns and the streets were full of tourists. It was very lively and unprecedented, and the Spring Festival didn't really end until after the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month. Traditional festival ceremonies and related custom activities are important contents of festival elements, bearing rich and colorful festival cultural connotations.