Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional festivals - What is the historical origin of the Chinese New Year?

What is the historical origin of the Chinese New Year?

On the historical origin of the Spring Festival, due to the lack of ancient documents (Qin Shi Huang burned books), the existing documents do not clearly record the origin of the Spring Festival, resulting in the origin of the Spring Festival has a lot of legends. Among them, there are a few representative sayings, the Spring Festival originated from the ancient "Lunar New Year Festival", originated from the "Emperor's fixed years", originated from the "witchcraft rituals", originated from the "Ghost Festival", originated from the "Ghost Festival", originated from the "Ghost Festival", originated from the "Ghost Festival", originated from the "Ghost Festival". Ghost Festival", "Ancient Harvest Sacrifice", "Shun Succeeded the Chief of the Tribal Alliance" (some say that Shun succeeded the Son of Heaven, but the title of "Son of Heaven" first began in the ancient times. "

According to the report of the National People's Congress (NPC), the first time that the NPC has been recognized by the NPC was in the Spring and Autumn period, and the first time that the NPC has been recognized by the NPC was in the Han dynasty.

According to evidence, the origin of traditional festivals is related to ancient primitive beliefs, rituals, and calendars and other human and natural cultural content. Most of the ancient traditional festivals were formed in the ancient people to choose auspicious days to sacrifice, in order to thank the gods of heaven and earth, the ancestors of the grace of the activities. The early festival culture reflects the ancient humanistic spirit of nature worship and the unity of heaven and man; a series of sacrificial activities contain the profound cultural connotation of the civilization of rituals and music. In the evolution of historical development, some festivals in the date of adjustment, most of the traditional festivals were attached to a legend as the "origin" instead of the original true origin.

According to research, the origin of the Spring Festival is closely related to the calendar, the weather, and rituals, and in ancient times, the ancients held rituals at the beginning of a new year at the end of the year's agricultural activities in the first year of the ancestor, the gods of the benevolence of the gods, and prayed for a good year. Spring Festival is evolved from the first year of the sacrificial activities, the ancient rituals of the situation is difficult to know, but still can be from the later generations of the festival rituals to find some of the remains of the ancient customs, such as some places along the southern coast of the first day of the first month of the custom of worshipping the gods. The formation of Spring Festival folklore is a process of long-term accumulation and cohesion of a nation's or country's history and culture.

The concept of "year" comes from the ancient calendar, "Pangu Wang table" and "three life" are contained: "the emperor's began to make the name of the stem and branch, in order to determine the location of the year". The ancients determined the beginning and end of the cycle of the four seasons according to the laws of heaven and earth, and "year" became the general term for the four seasons of the year. The earth goes around the sun for one week, which is called a year in the calendar, and the cycle is never-ending. According to the different seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter, people set the first year of the year.

Since ancient times, people have emphasized the significance of the head of the year as the beginning of the year. In Shangshu-Dazhuan, it is said, "The first day of the first month is the morning of the year, the morning of the month, and the morning of the day; therefore, it is said, 'Three Dynasties,' and it is also said, 'Three Beginnings.'" It means that the first day of the first month is the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month, and the beginning of the day. The beginning of the beginning of the year, called the beginning of the year (New Year, Spring Festival), folk commonly known as "New Year" or "New Year".

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New Year is different in different countries

In South Korea, North Korea, and Vietnam, the Lunar New Year is the most important festival of the year. On the Korean Peninsula, the Lunar New Year is known as the "New Year's Day" or "old first day," and the first three days of the first month of the lunar year are official holidays for the entire nation. In Vietnam, the Lunar New Year holiday runs from New Year's Eve to the third day of the first month of the lunar year, plus a Saturday and Sunday changeover, **** six days.

Some Chinese-populated Southeast Asian countries also designate the Lunar New Year as an official holiday. In Singapore, the first to the third day of the first month is a public **** holiday. In Malaysia, where Chinese make up a quarter of the population, the government has designated the first and second days of the first month as official holidays. Indonesia and the Philippines, which have large Chinese populations, made the Lunar New Year a national public **** holiday in 2003 and 2004, respectively, but the Philippines does not observe the holiday.

Japan used to celebrate New Year according to the old calendar (similar to the lunar calendar). After switching to the new calendar since 1873, although most of Japan does not observe the Old Calendar New Year, areas such as Okinawa Prefecture and the Amami Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture retain the Old Calendar New Year customs intact

Reference Chinese New Year_Baidu Encyclopedia