Traditional customs of New Year's Day

The traditional customs of New Year's Day include: offering sacrifices to ancestors, offering sacrifices to gods and buddhas, setting off firecrackers and having a reunion dinner. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, on New Year's Day, people drank peach soup, eggs, pepper and cypress wine, Tu Su wine, chewing gum and jelly. In the Song Dynasty, on New Year's Day, it was very common to eat suobing, that is, a cake like a rope, similar to noodles.

In ancient China, there was a word "New Year's Day", which originated from the Book of Jin, but in order to facilitate people's farming, March of the year was designated as "New Year's Day", that is, when farming began. During the period of Yao and Shun, the "New Year's Day" became a day of offering sacrifices to the two emperors of Yao and Shun, and people regarded the day when they died as the beginning of a year. New Year's Day refers to different times. In the Xia Dynasty, the first month of the summer calendar was January in spring. In Shang dynasty, December in winter was the first month of lunar calendar, and November in winter was the first month of weekly calendar. In the Qin Dynasty, October in winter was the first month, and the first day of October was New Year's Day. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, January in spring was the first month, and the first day of January was called New Year's Day, which was used until the end of the Qing Dynasty.