A brief introduction to the origin of the Spring Festival

The origin of the Spring Festival is said to be four ways, namely, the wax festival, witchcraft rituals, ghost festivals, and the New Year's legend

The wax festival: the Spring Festival originated from the ancient wax festival, which has a history of 4,000 to 5,000 years, and it is used to offer sacrifices to the gods of agriculture as well as to all the gods and ancestors. Whenever the wax is over and spring comes, people have to kill animals and sacrifice them to their ancestors and heaven, praying that the new year will be smooth, disaster-free and prosperous.

Witchcraft rituals: The theory that the Spring Festival originated from the ancient witchcraft rituals, is a concrete embodiment of the primitive belief in witchcraft. Primitive people believe that human will and power can adjust and control the development of natural things. A series of taboos, such as diet, rituals, decorations, amusements, entertainment, and language, behavior, and diet, were all centered around warding off evil and praying for good luck, and people hoped to drive away evil and gain happiness through them. Since then, with the evolution of time, the Spring Festival has slowly turned into a celebration.

The Ghost Festival: According to the theory, due to poor scientific knowledge and low productivity, people in the past were poorly equipped to withstand natural disasters and were often disturbed by the cold waves of winter, and the scarcity of food was also a cause of fear for these people. With the arrival of early spring, the green and yellow harvests were even more life-threatening, and the elderly and children would be the first to die of hunger, cold and various other harsh factors. This made the people very frightened, suspecting that it was due to ghosts and spirits. Once this period of panic was over, people would congratulate each other. This phenomenon gradually evolved into the Spring Festival.

New Year's Legend: Folklore has it that during the Spring Festival, a beast called the Nian, also known as the Xi, comes out of the wild in winter. Nian beast once a year, the day called "over the year" (the year came), will be over the year this night called "in addition to the evening" (in addition to the evening). New Year's Eve" is very ferocious, in the middle of the night, walking around the house to eat people, Yanhuang ancestors in order to avoid the New Year, that family reunion together, sitting around together to resist the New Year's Eve.

Because of the annual infestation of the beast of the year, the ancestors of the Yellow Emperor in its countless struggles, figured out the tricks of the struggle, although the beast of the year is fierce, but afraid of the red color, the fire and the loud noise. Therefore, every family in the doorway to put red spring couplets, in front of the door to set off bonfires, firecrackers, the beast saw the red couplets on the door, the door has a red fire, firecrackers, thunder and chaos, and elders will pay tribute to the New Year, will drive away the beast of the New Year.

There is also a theory that the beast is "Xi" rather than "year". The Spring Festival is the New Year's Eve and then the New Year. The word "eve" is a kind of ghostly monster, and the word "year" has nothing to do with animals and beasts from the meaning of the word, more like the meaning of harvest and ripeness. There is no record of a New Year's Eve beast in the ancient texts, but only in the Republic of China.

The Spring Festival, or New Year's Day in the traditional Chinese calendar, is the traditional New Year in Han Chinese societies in China and around the world, and is also known as the first day of the year, the New Year, the first day of the first month, the first day of the first month of the first day of the first month of the first month; orally, it is also known as New Year's Day, New Year's Day, Dusuyi, Xinchun, and Xinyue, and it is the first of the four major traditional Han Chinese festivals.

The Chinese people have been celebrating the Spring Festival for at least 4,000 years. In folklore, the Spring Festival traditionally refers to the period from the Lunar New Year's wax festival or the Zao festival on the 23rd or 24th day of the Lunar New Year until the 19th day of the first lunar month.

In modern times, the Spring Festival is set on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, but the New Year is generally not considered over until at least the fifteenth day of the first month (Shangyuan Festival).

Reference links

Chinese New Year - Wikipedia

Chinese New Year (traditional Chinese festival) - Baidu Wiki