Does the Lunar New Year begin in beginning of spring or on New Year's Day?

Spring Festival: the beginning of the Lunar New Year.

The first day of the first lunar month is the Spring Festival, also known as the Lunar New Year, commonly known as the Chinese New Year, which is the most distinctive traditional festival in China. It marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year.

The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors in the early and late Shang Dynasty, but the first day of the first month was called "New Year's Day" in ancient times. Du Taiqing of Sui Dynasty said in "Five Candles Collection": "The first month is the end of the month, and one day is Yuan Day, which is also a cloud and a cloud." The original meaning of "yuan" is "head" and later extended to "start" Because this day is the first day of the year, the first day of spring and the first day of the first month, it is called "Sanyuan". Because it is the first Shuori, it is also called "Yuanshuo".

In Song Dynasty, Wu explained in Dream: "The first day of the first month is the first day of the New Year's Day." The interpretation of the word "Dan" in Shuo Wen Jie Zi is: "From day to day, I see the ground." It means that the sun has just risen from the horizon, which means morning. Because it means the first morning of a year and the first morning of the first month respectively, it is called "New Year's Day" and "Zheng Dan".

In addition to the above titles, the Spring Festival is also called "Opening Year", "Opening Year", "Releasing Year" and "Chinese New Year", among which "New Year's Day" is the most common and the longest. Until the victory of the Revolution of 1911 in modern China, in order to conform to the farming season and facilitate statistics, the Nanjing Provisional Government stipulated that people use the summer calendar, and institutions, factories, mines, schools and organizations implement the solar calendar. The first day of the solar calendar is New Year's Day, and the first day of the first lunar month is the Spring Festival.

In addition, there is a saying that the original meaning of the two concepts, Spring Festival and New Year, comes from agriculture. In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of the valley "year". The word "nian" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the image of fruit harvest; The "Year" in the bronze inscription is a day to hope for a bumper harvest and a happy holiday. "Gu Liang Chuan" said: "The bumper harvest of grains is a great year"; "Shuo Wen He Bu": "The year is ripe." On the first day of the first month around the beginning of spring, people get together to celebrate the New Year.

There are also such legends among the people. In ancient China, there was a monster called Nian. It had a long, sharp head and was fierce. Nian beast has lived in the depths of the sea for many years. Every New Year's Eve, it crawls ashore to devour livestock and kill people. Therefore, on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, people in the village helped the elderly and took care of the young, and fled to the deep mountains to avoid the harm of one year.

One year on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, the villagers were busy packing and fleeing to the deep mountains.

At this time, an old man with white hair came to the east of the village and told an old woman that as long as he stayed at her house for one night, Nian beast could be driven away. People don't believe it. The old woman advised him to go up the mountain to avoid. The old man insisted on staying. When they saw that he couldn't stay, they went up the mountain to hide.

Every festive season, people set off fireworks and firecrackers, making the whole family happy.

Just as Nian beast was about to break into the village and wreak havoc as in previous years, suddenly there came the sound of a white-haired old man lighting firecrackers. Nian beast trembled and never dared to move forward again. It turns out that Nian beast is most afraid of red, fire and explosion. When Daimon Masaru opened it, he saw an old man in a red robe laughing in the hospital. The beast "Nian" was frightened to disgrace and fled in haste.

The next day, when people returned to the village from the deep mountains, they found the village safe and sound. Only then did they suddenly realize that the white-haired old man was a fairy who helped everyone drive away the "Nian" beast. At the same time, people also found three magic weapons for the white-haired old man to expel the "Nian" beast.

From then on, every year on New Year's Eve, every family posted red couplets and set off firecrackers, and every family was brightly lit. This custom spread more and more widely and became the most solemn traditional festival in China.