The origin and date of various traditional festivals in China.

Spring Festival is the first day of the first lunar month, also known as the lunar year, commonly known as "Chinese New Year". This is the most grand and lively traditional festival among Chinese people. The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors at the beginning and end of the Yin and Shang Dynasties. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the first day of the first month was called Yuanri, Yuanchen, Yuanzheng, Yuanshuo, New Year's Day, etc., commonly known as the first day of the first month. In the Republic of China, it was changed to the Gregorian calendar. The first day of the Gregorian calendar was called New Year's Day, and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was called the Spring Festival.

January 1st: New Year's Day

(The word "New Year's Day" originated from the poem "Jieya" written by Xiao Ziyun, a Liang native in the Southern Dynasties: "New Year's Day with Four Spirits, Long Life, Today". Yuan is the beginning, the first meaning; Dan is a knowing word, with the "sun" above representing the sun and the "one" below representing the horizon. The sun rises from the horizon, symbolizing the beginning of the day. New Year's Day is the first day of the year.

the 15th day of the first lunar month: Lantern Festival

(also known as "Shangyuan Festival", that is, the 15th day of the first lunar month. It is an important traditional festival in China. In ancient books, this day is called Shangyuan, and its night is called Yuanye, Yuanxi or Yuanxiao. The name Yuanxiao has been used ever since. Because of the custom of putting up and watching lanterns on Lantern Festival, it is also known as the Lantern Festival among the people. In addition, there are customs such as eating Yuanxiao, walking on stilts and solve riddles on the lanterns. The ancient calendar in China is closely related to the phases of the moon. On the fifteenth day of each month, people greet the first full moon night of the year, which is naturally regarded as an auspicious day. As early as the Han Dynasty, the fifteenth day of the first month has been used as a day for offering sacrifices to God and praying for blessings. Later, the ancients called the fifteenth day of the first month Shang Yuan, the fifteenth day of July Zhong Yuan and the fifteenth day of October Xia Yuan. At the latest, in the early Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sanyuan was the day to hold a grand ceremony. Of the three elements, Shangyuan is the most valued. Later, the celebrations of Zhongyuan and Xiayuan were gradually abolished, while Shangyuan was enduring. )

the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day: cold food

(a festival in the old customs, the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day [two days before Qingming Festival]. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhong Er, the son of the State of Jin, who had been exiled for many years, returned to China and acceded to the throne [that is, Jin Wengong], honoring the courtiers who died with him, except for the introduction. Jie Zhitui then lived in seclusion with his mother in Mianshan [now southeast of Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province]. When Jin Wengong learned of this, he wanted to raise the reward. He found Mianshan, but he couldn't find him, so he wanted to burn the mountain to force him out. However, Jiezhi couldn't stick to it, and as a result, both mother and son were burned to death. Jin Wengong therefore stipulates that people are forbidden to cook on fire on this day every year to express their mourning with cold food. Later, the custom of eating cold food and sweeping graves on the day of cold food was formed. )

April 5th: Tomb-Sweeping Day

(Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional festival in China, and it is also the most important festival for offering sacrifices to ancestors and sweeping graves. Grave-sweeping is commonly known as going to the grave and offering sacrifices to the dead. Most of the Han people and some ethnic minorities visit graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day. According to the old custom, when sweeping graves, people should bring food, wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to their relatives' graves, then incinerate the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, fold a few green branches and insert them in the graves, then kowtow and worship, and finally eat food and drink and go home. The poem Qingming by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said: "It rains in abundance during the Qingming Festival, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Ask the local people where to buy wine and worry? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village. " Write the special atmosphere of Tomb-Sweeping Day.

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month: Dragon Boat Festival

(The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival. The real name of "Dragon Boat Festival" is "Duanwu", which means the beginning. "Five" and "noon" are homophonic and universal. It is an ancient festival in China. After Qu Yuan

, the earliest patriotic poet in ancient China, was exiled by slanderers, he witnessed the increasingly corrupt politics of Chu State, and was unable to realize his political ideal and save the endangered motherland, so he threw himself into the Guluo River to die. Since then, in order to prevent fish and shrimp from eating their bodies, people have kneaded glutinous rice and flour into cakes of various shapes and put them into the heart of the river, which became the source of eating zongzi and fried cakes during the Dragon Boat Festival. This custom has spread abroad. )

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month: Qixi Valentine's Day

(The night of the seventh lunar month is called "Qixi". According to Chinese folklore, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl met at the Queqiao Bridge in Tianhe this night. Later, there were customs such as women asking Vega for help on this night. The so-called begging for cleverness means threading a needle at Vega with colored thread in the moonlight. If you can pass through seven needle holes of different sizes, it will be "clever". The farmer's proverb says, "The seventh day of July is clear and bright, and the sickle is grinded to cut the rice." It's time to sharpen the sickle and get ready to harvest early rice. )

August 15th of the lunar calendar: Mid-Autumn Festival

(August 15th of the lunar calendar is in the middle of autumn, so it is called "Mid-Autumn Festival". At night, the moon is full in Gui Xiang, which is regarded by the old customs as a symbol of happy reunion. It is a festival to enjoy the moon by preparing all kinds of fruits and cooked food. Eat moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival. According to legend, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, in order to overthrow the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty, the broad masses of people wrote the date of the uprising on a piece of paper and put it in the stuffing of moon cakes, so as to secretly pass it on to each other and call on everyone to revolt on August 15th. Finally, on this day, a nationwide peasant uprising broke out, overthrowing the decadent Yuan Dynasty rule. Since then, the custom of eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival has spread more widely. )

the ninth day of the ninth lunar month: Double Ninth Festival

(the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. In ancient China, nine was the sun, and September 9 was the sun of the cloudy moon, hence the name "Chongyang". According to legend, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Runan people were in the shadow, they heard Fei Changfang tell him that there would be a great disaster in Runan on September 9, so they quickly asked their families to sew a small generation, put cornus in it, tie it on their arms, climb the mountain and drink chrysanthemum wine, so as to take refuge. On this day, the whole family climbed the mountain and went home at night. Sure enough, all the chickens, dogs and sheep in the family died. Since then, there have been folk customs such as making cornus's generation, drinking chrysanthemum wine, holding temple fairs and climbing mountains on the Double Ninth Festival. Because "Gao" and "Gao" have the same sound, there is a custom of eating "Chongyang cake" on the Double Ninth Festival. In the Tang Dynasty, the poet Wang Weiyou wrote a poem "on the mountain holiday thinking of my brothers in shandong": "Being a stranger alone in a foreign land, I miss my family twice every festive season. I know from afar where my brother climbed, and there was one less person in the dogwood. " Recorded the customs and habits at that time. Because of its sincere feelings, the poem has been well-known so far. )