Spring Festival is only 102 years old? How did it become like this step by step?

1992 Three hosts of the Spring Festival Evening: Yang Lan (left), Zhao Zhongxiang (middle) and Ni Ping (right).

Do you know that the current Spring Festival is actually only 102 years old? Hobsbawm, a leftist historian, once put forward the term "the tradition of invention", which means that many people think that tradition is "ancient" and a living creation of contemporary people, and the Spring Festival is undoubtedly the best example.

On the afternoon of February 1, the 11th issue of "Our City Forum" was planned by the Department of Cultural Studies of Shanghai University, the Urban Social Research Center of Jiaotong University and the Regional and Urban Law Research Center. ! -The Spring Festival jigsaw puzzle between urban and rural areas was held in Monsoon Bookstore. Deng Jian, Wang and Wang, three doctoral students in the Department of Cultural Studies of Shanghai University, talked about how people participated in the transition of the Spring Festival in the process of rapid urbanization, and how the participation of national policies and personal life experiences promoted the formation of new customs.

Spring Festival is only 102 years old.

Saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, family reunion, Spring Festival can be said to be the most important festival in China. However, unlike western religious festivals, the Spring Festival is an annual festival formed and developed under the agricultural civilization. About its origin, it is generally believed that when Yu Shun ascended the throne, he led his men to worship heaven and earth. Spring Festival has different names in history. Known as Shangri-La and Yuanri in the Qin Dynasty; In the Han Dynasty, Niandan and Zheng Dan were called; Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were called Nianchao and Fuehrer. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was called year, day and new currency. In Qing Dynasty, it was called New Year's Day and Yuan Day. After the Republic of China, this festival gradually evolved into a national festival from Laba Festival to Lantern Festival.

19 12, the Republic of China announced that it would change the Gregorian calendar to 1+0 as the "New Year", but its implementation met with obstacles among the people. 1914 65438+10 In order to comply with public opinion, Zhu Qiqian, then Minister of the Interior, proposed that Lunar New Year's Day be the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival be the summer festival, Mid-Autumn Festival be the autumn festival, and winter solstice be the winter festival. All citizens must have a rest, and civil servants can also have a day off. "With the approval of Yuan Shikai, this laid the coexistence pattern that 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." Therefore, the Spring Festival we are celebrating now is actually only 102 years old.

Traditional folk paper-cutting.

In the early years of the Republic of China, the government tried to move activities such as Chinese New Year, ancestor worship and posting Spring Festival couplets to New Year's Day in the solar calendar, but the strong traditional consciousness of the people kept these customs in the Spring Festival.

The three spokesmen narrowed the research materials to People's Daily after New China, and searched with "Spring Festival travel rush" as the key word, and got 3,750 reports. Although there are limitations, it also reflects the changes of the Spring Festival in the last half century.

1949 —— 1956: Spring Festival travel rush combined with publicity.

Eating has always been an important element of the Spring Festival. China people's habit of hoarding food before the festival makes "Spring Festival price increase" an iron law under the background of insufficient materials. But 195 1 Beijing seems to have broken this convention and spent a Spring Festival with "prices as usual". There are two reasons: first, the Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce this year. Second, the Ministry of Trade specifically stipulates that prices should be stabilized during the Spring Festival. It can be seen that at this time, the government has begun to deal with the unstable factors that may occur during the holidays.

However, the biggest feature of the Spring Festival in this period is that entertainment programs are smeared with strong political color. The workers' and peasants' party and the military-civilian party are two important forms in this period. During the Spring Festival, workers and farmers from all over the country will hold a grand party. Deng Jian pointed out that this kind of participatory rather than instant entertainment makes people feel the flavor of the year more personally. The military-civilian party is almost the only uninterrupted form of political party since liberation.

During this period, almost every year, the cultural activities of the Spring Festival have a fixed theme: 1953 to publicize the marriage law, 1954 to publicize the general line. Although this propaganda request did not resort to legal documents, those who failed to meet the standards would still be criticized. 1952, the Spring Festival performance of the Central Academy of Drama was criticized because its program did not meet the needs of the real struggle, and the Academy of Drama had to make a review.

1956- 1966: break the routine to celebrate the Spring Festival.

Nowadays, people often say "Spring Festival travel rush is difficult". In fact, as early as the 1950 s, Spring Festival travel rush was already very difficult. 1954, the country made it clear for the first time that the peak time in Spring Festival travel rush was one month before and after Spring Festival travel rush, and the Ministry of Railways set up the Spring Festival travel rush Passenger Transport Office, which was on duty day and night. 1957, the State Council gave instructions for the first time to do a good job in Spring Festival travel rush, asking enterprises and schools to mobilize employees and students to understand the difficulties of railway transportation, and to leave early, late and not.

Solving the problem of rushing to transport goods in Spring Festival travel rush was combined with the Great Leap Forward Movement in 1958, and the call of "breaking the routine and celebrating the Spring Festival" was realized. "Don't go home if you can't go home" has become a universal slogan, and coal mines, water conservancy projects and government departments are the most thoroughly implemented industries. 1959 reported that on New Year's Eve this year, the site of the Ming Tombs Reservoir was the most lively. The labor songs of more than 27,000 migrant workers, officers and soldiers, cadres and students resounded throughout the New Year's Eve.

Headlines of 1950 during the Spring Festival.

In the1960s, some old habits of luxury and gambling made a comeback in society. At this time, the call for "celebrating the Spring Festival in the spirit of revolution" followed, and it became fashionable to oppose worshipping gods and ancestors, eating and drinking, and celebrating the holidays with a healthy and frugal attitude.

1966- 1976: Revolutionary Spring Festival travel rush

This decade is a special period in the history of New China. 1967, the State Council issued a notice that there would be no holiday this Spring Festival, and China entered a "revolutionary Spring Festival travel rush" from then on.

The so-called "revolutionary Spring Festival" has three points in simple terms: First, we should "grasp the revolution to promote production", not go home during the Spring Festival, actively participate in productive labor, and turn winter leisure into winter busy; Second, all so-called "feudal customs" are prohibited during the Spring Festival, such as setting off firecrackers, burning incense and worshipping Buddha, dancing dragons and lions, and kowtowing to celebrate the New Year. Third, don't eat or drink, let alone play cards.

People are familiar with the custom of Spring Festival only "posting Spring Festival couplets", but the content is quite different from the original greeting. The most distinctive one is "Don't stop fighting at 30, continue working on the first day".

At that time, the most typical scene to celebrate the Spring Festival was: a family sitting around the statue of Chairman Mao having a New Year's Eve dinner. There will be a family meeting before meals to criticize private enterprises. Parents will put down their airs and criticize each other and themselves with their children. Children can also "fire" their parents.

Eating is still an important part of China New Year, but it is not "eating well" but "eating badly" that is popular in this period. Unit canteens in the city and commune canteens in the countryside will organize everyone to eat "recalling bitter thoughts and sweet rice"-cooking porridge with wild vegetables, roots, corn paste and dried sweet potatoes according to local conditions, in order to let everyone remember the "evil old society".

1979- 1989: Go home safely and have a happy new year.

On June 7th 1979+65438+, People's Daily published a letter from readers entitled "Why don't we have a holiday during the Spring Festival", which received responses from all over the country. 1980, the Spring Festival holiday system has returned in an all-round way, and the first big problem that followed was the Spring Festival travel rush craze.

Since the1980s, a large number of migrant workers have flooded into cities.

198 1 at the beginning of the year, the passenger traffic in the first two months reached 1.2 1 100 million; During the Spring Festival travel rush peak from 65438 to 0982, the number of passengers in Beijing Station alone reached 5.32 million. Why is there such a large flow? People often boil it down to a group-"blind flow", that is, people who have moved from rural permanent residence to cities without stable jobs and fixed residences.

1984 central "No.1 document" allows farmers to take care of their own rations and enter cities and towns to work, do business and run enterprises. /kloc-in the 1980s, four immigration circles were formed: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Delta region, Pearl River Delta region and Xinjiang region, which is rich in minerals, convenient for foreign trade and superior in geographical location. When these migrant workers concentrate on returning home for the Spring Festival, they often buy tickets and may not get on the bus to go home. People often run at the station with big bags and small bags, and even many people climb into the carriage from the window before the train leaves. According to statistics, 880,000 people went home standing in 1988. Safe vacation and safe return home are also put forward under this background.

During this period, cultural activities during the Spring Festival are in full swing. Television programs have not only greatly increased, but also have rich themes. They are no longer limited to revolutionary education, and more TV dramas close to life have begun to be put on the silver screen. However, the most noteworthy thing in the 1980 s was the first Spring Festival Gala of CCTV in 1983. Whether people are enjoying or spitting, this feast has been with us for 3 1 year.

The economic situation is so good that people are no longer struggling to buy new year's goods. 1985 Beijing holds the first Spring Festival Fair.

1985 Beijing holds the first Spring Festival Fair.

However, the richness of material and entertainment did not satisfy people for a long time. On February 8th, 1989, People's Daily published an article entitled "Cold Spring Festival and Christmas Fever in Shanghai". Traditional festivals urgently need to find new forms and new contents in the new era.

1990 till now: Go out and go home.

The key word of the new form is "outside": going out for dinner and traveling.

In the 1990 s, eating New Year's Eve out became very popular. From 65438 to 0996, the Beijing Municipal Government put forward the slogan "Hundreds of hotels welcome family banquets, hundreds of shopping malls hang lanterns, and hundreds of hotels celebrate the New Year".

1999, the State Council promulgated a new "National Festival and Memorial Day", which spliced the rest time of the Spring Festival, May 1st and 11th with the weekends before and after, forming a seven-day "Golden Week". The golden week tourism season was born.

Chen Hong (left) and Cai Guoqing (right) sang "Come home often" at 1999 Spring Festival Evening.

1999 Spring Festival Evening, a song "Go home often to see" sang many people's voices. Going home during the Spring Festival to see the old people reunited with their families has once again become the demand of society. In 20 13, the law on the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly was revised, and "visit home often" was formally written into the law. However, the taste of going home has gradually changed in recent years. During the Spring Festival, red envelopes, gifts and greetings from relatives and friends have increasingly become a burden. The word "fear of returning to China" came into being. When "love" gradually turned into "debt", the original taste of the Spring Festival was diluted.

As a festival passed down from the farming society, people can always find a carnival place in the traditional small-scale peasant economy society. However, in different historical periods of New China, the Spring Festival was kneaded and reshaped under the background of rapid industrialization and marketization.

Before the Cultural Revolution, the Spring Festival was a cultural ceremony under the tide of national revolution and production. Regardless of workers, peasants and soldiers, everyone took part. It was a "big Spring Festival". Although the materials are scarce, everyone is moved by the rich Chinese New Year atmosphere. From the late 1970 s to the present, the consumer market has enriched the year more and more, but at the same time it has made the year stale. During this period, the "Little Spring Festival" emphasized that the whole family got together and enjoyed family happiness, but going home gradually became an embarrassing topic of "love and hate".

Newspaper report: 4009-20-4009

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Keywords >> Spring Festival; the Spring Festival; Chinese New Year