The age, main features and causes of the New Year custom

There are two kinds of folklore stories:

One story is that in ancient times, there was a fierce monster called "Nian", which came to every village on the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, foraging for human flesh and killing the living beings. One night on the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, Nian arrived at a village where two cowherd boys were competing with a cow whip. Nian suddenly heard the sound of whips snapping in the air and fled in fear. It scurried to another village and saw a big red dress in front of a house, which it didn't know what it was, so it turned back and fled. Later it came to another village, towards a door of a family look, only to see the lights inside, stabbing it dizziness, and had to tuck his tail and slipped away. People have thus recognized the weaknesses of "Nian", which is afraid of noise, red, and light, and have come up with many ways to defend themselves against it, which has gradually evolved into today's New Year's Eve customs.

Another theory is that:

China's ancient word book put the "year" character in the Wo Department, to show that the wind and rain, a good harvest. Since the grain is usually ripe once a year, the character "年" (year) is used to indicate that the weather is favorable and the harvest is abundant. The "year" will be extended to the name of the year. China's ancient folk although there has long been the custom of the New Year, but then it is not called the Spring Festival. Because then the Spring Festival, refers to the twenty-four seasons in the "spring". During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Spring Festival was generalized to mean the entire spring season. It is said that the Chinese New Year was officially named Spring Festival after the Xinhai Revolution. Because of the change to the solar calendar at that time, in order to differentiate between the lunar and solar festivals, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar had to be renamed "Spring Festival".

The main features

The Spring Festival is one of the grandest and most lively ancient traditional festivals in China, with a long history and rich social and cultural connotations. In its historical development and evolution, the Spring Festival has continuously formed and condensed the Chinese people's unique ethical feelings, sense of time and life, cultural pursuit of identity, and even a quasi-religious consciousness. In various unique Spring Festival ceremonies, traditional Chinese nationalities and folk cultures are centrally displayed and expressed; during the Spring Festival, Han Chinese and many ethnic minorities in China hold their own distinctive activities to celebrate the event. During the Spring Festival, the Han Chinese and many ethnic minorities hold their own distinctive activities to celebrate. Most of these activities focus on paying homage to ancestors, getting rid of the old and welcoming the new, celebrating the Jubilee, praying for a good harvest, and offering sacrifices to various gods and goddesses, which are colorful and have strong ethnic characteristics. These folk activities during the Spring Festival reflect the inheritance and promotion of this long tradition of folk culture in contemporary times.

The reason

The Spring Festival originally refers to the first day of the first day of spring, you can start China's Spring Festival preparations, celebrations began as early as the eighth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, the Han Chinese folk New Year's Day to Lunar New Year, sacrificing stove, the year-end vigil, New Year's Day, sacrifices to the God of Fortune, temple fair and other customary activities until the first fifteen days of the first month of the Lantern Festival! "It lasts for more than a month until the end of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month. People who work hard for a year, before and after the New Year's period of time, family reunion, visit friends and relatives, worship God and pray for blessings, in various ways to look forward to the good luck of the coming year's custom known as New Year's custom.