What is the meaning of the Chinese New Year?

The fifth day of the first month of the Chinese New Year is also called the "broken five", broken five has two meanings.

One meaning is that on the fifth day of the first month, many of the taboos of the previous first month are lifted. There is also another meaning, "broken five" has the meaning of "send the year", after this day, everything will slowly return to the New Year's Eve before the normal. The most important activities on the fifth day are to send the poor, welcome the god of wealth and open the market for trade.

The origin of the Spring Festival

The fifth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, in folklore, customarily referred to as "broken five". It is the first important traditional festival after the New Year, which carries the splendid cultural elements of the long history of the Chinese nation. After the first five, people will be from the grand and lively atmosphere of the New Year, into the regular regular life." This traditional festival, from ancient times to the present day, has been entrusted with people in the new year quite a lot of hope and good expectations.

In the ancient times, due to the backwardness of science and technology constraints, so that people's understanding of nature and human society is limited, had to bring the good wishes, in the long history of the fog in the difficult to move forward, created a lot of superstitious color with taboos and rules and regulations, which, of course, also comply with the objective aspects of the actual. In short, "breaking five" this day, bear a profound meaning of two connotations. The first is to break the shackles of superstitious taboos and poverty that bind people. The second is to establish a sense of wealth and confidence in poverty. All these have left many interesting myths and stories about the origins of the traditional folk festival "Broken Five".

There are several ways to describe the custom of breaking the poverty line.

1, is rumored, ancient China's outstanding statesman, military, Taoist, the founding father of the Zhou Dynasty, the end of the Shang Dynasty and the early Zhou Dynasty, the founding father of the science of war, Jiang Taigong (about 1156 B.C. a about 1017 B.C.). After sealing all the gods, they were all satisfied. But only Jiang Tai Gong's wife could not be sealed as a god, and she was clamoring for a god all day long. Jiang Tai Gong was fed up and said, "You married into my family and made me poor all my life, so I can't seal you up. A woman, all day long do not work, the family is dirty and poor, you are really a "poor god". His wife was so happy to hear this that she thought that Jiang Taigong had made him a god, so she publicized it everywhere. As a result, she went to whoever's house, who is dirty and poor, the people hate her so much that they woke up early on the day of the "fifth day of the week", set off firecrackers and cleaned up, and threw her out of the door.

2. It is said that a long time ago, the Jade Emperor put Mirai Buddha in charge of the overall arrangements for the New Year. When Mirai Buddha was inviting the gods on New Year's Eve, he forgot about Jiang Tai Gong's wife, the famous "poor god". She was furious and made trouble with Mirai Buddha. Mirai Buddha was all smiles, but he didn't answer. The poor god was so angry that he beat his chest and feet, and smoke came out of his seven orifices. Seeing that things are getting bigger and bigger, Maitreya Buddha spoke up and said: "Let's do it this way! Today is the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, let someone give you a few more cannons, hold the dumplings once! After the poor god ate the dumplings, the people let her go back.

3, is the "broken five" that drive the five poor , five poor refers to "wisdom poor, learning poor, Wen poor, life poor, cross poor" and other five kinds of poor. It has been seen in the Tang Dynasty outstanding writer, thinker, philosopher, politician Han Yu's "send poor text" said: "Where this five ghosts, for my five patients. ″So in the "broken five" to go. Literati speak in a civilized manner and call it sending the five poor. And the people are not so civilized. Directly honestly called "fill poor pit ″, and firecrackers, sweeping, unceremoniously will be five poor drive to extinction.

4, is "broken five" to break the New Year's period of a lot of taboos . Because of the "broken five" is the first important festival after the Spring Festival, the ancient people have a lot of taboos during the New Year, such as: do not say unlucky words; can not break things at home; can not use raw rice to cook; women can not do needlework; can not clean, and so on. After the first five days, these taboos will be automatically lifted, so this day is called "broken five".

5, is "broken five" to eat dumplings , commonly known as pinching the mouth of the little man. In the old days, a lot of bad things in daily life, are those immoral villain to bring, so the first five days of the first month of the day to eat dumplings behavior, is these villains through the disposal, to avoid these villains in the coming year, to their own and family members in the heart of the block, hope in the new year to live a better life.

There are the following sayings in welcoming the God of Wealth.

1, is the fifth day of the first month of the first month is said to be the God of Fortune's birthday , people use a variety of ways to welcome the God of Fortune. Where the God of Fortune shall be provided with sheep's head and carp. For the sheep's head has the meaning of good luck; for carp is the figure "fish" is "Yu" of the harmonics, for a good luck. People are full of hope to get rich, longing for the new year in the great wealth.

2, is the "broken five" open market . The old custom during the Spring Festival, all kinds of stores from the first day of the year closed, and in the first five days of the market. It is believed that the choice of the first five God of Fortune's birthday this day to open the market will attract wealth into the treasure, no matter how your business, this year's fortune will be very strong.

Summary

Since the fifth day of the first month of the lunar calendar has multiple tasks such as sending the God of Poverty and receiving the God of Fortune, it is not surprising that this day is very important. The combination of so much attention, the formation of the "broken five" characteristics of the custom of a feast, firecrackers, eat dumplings to symbolize the "Yuanbao″ to support the "broken five" of this ancient festival of the special atmosphere.

The various legends and activities that have been handed down to us can only be viewed in retrospect as historical cultural heritage, especially those with superstitious coloring and unsuitable for the development of the times, which have long been abandoned by modern people. Relying on the country's wealth policy and poverty alleviation policy, you can get rid of poverty, towards the chromium of affluence, and live a happy and prosperous life.