What are the symbols and meanings of the Spring Festival?

The Chinese New Year symbolizes the farewell of the old and the welcome of the new, blessings, reunion, peace, prosperity and so on. The Spring Festival is the traditional Lunar New Year of the Chinese cultural circle, commonly known as the "New Year Festival", traditionally known as the New Year, the New Year, the New Year, but also known verbally as the New Year, the New Year Celebration, the New Year, is the most important traditional festival of the Chinese people.

During the Spring Festival, the Han Chinese and some ethnic minorities in China hold various celebrations. These activities are mainly to worship the ancestral gods, pay tribute to ancestors, get rid of the old and bring in the new, welcome the good fortune, and pray for a good year, in a colorful form, with strong characteristics of each ethnic group. Influenced by the Chinese culture, some countries and nationalities belonging to the Chinese cultural circle also have the custom of celebrating the Spring Festival.

People return to their homes and relatives as much as possible on the day of the Spring Festival to express their ardent hope for the coming year and their good wishes for the new year. The Spring Festival is not only a festival, but also an important carrier for Chinese people to release their emotions and satisfy their psychological demands, as well as an annual carnival and an eternal spiritual pillar of the Chinese nation.

The influence of the Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is the grandest traditional festival of the Chinese people. Influenced by Chinese culture, some countries and regions in the world also have the custom of celebrating the New Year. According to incomplete statistics, there have been nearly 20 countries and regions to the Chinese Spring Festival as a whole or under the jurisdiction of some cities as a legal holiday. The Spring Festival, together with the Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, is known as the four major traditional festivals in China. Spring Festival folklore was approved by the State Council to be included in the first national list of intangible cultural heritage.

Neighboring countries have always been influenced by our culture. In South Korea, North Korea and Vietnam, the Lunar New Year is the most important festival of the year. On the Korean Peninsula, the Lunar New Year is known as the "New Year's Day" or "old first day", and the first three days of the first month of the lunar year are legal holidays for the whole nation. In Vietnam, the Lunar New Year holiday runs from New Year's Eve to the third day of the first month of the lunar year, plus a Saturday and Sunday changeover, making it a six-day holiday.

Some Southeast Asian countries with a large Chinese population also designate the Lunar New Year as an official holiday. In Singapore, the first to third day of the first month is a public **** holiday. In Malaysia, where Chinese make up a quarter of the population, the government has designated the first and second days of the first month as official holidays. Indonesia and the Philippines, which have large Chinese populations, made the Lunar New Year a national public **** holiday in 2003 and 2004, respectively, but the Philippines does not observe the holiday.

Japan used to celebrate New Year according to the old calendar (similar to the lunar calendar). After switching to the new calendar since 1873, although most of Japan does not observe the old calendar New Year, areas such as Okinawa Prefecture and the Amami Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture retain the old calendar New Year's custom intact.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia - Spring Festival (one of the four traditional Chinese festivals)