Can anyone tell me how ancient Chinese celebrated New Year and who invented the four seasons? The origin of the New Year? How did the ancient Chinese celebrate the New Year?

How did the ancient Chinese celebrate the New Year? The year is the image of the ears of grain sinking down, is a symbol of the harvest, the so-called "grain ripe said year". What is the year? The year is a monster, all year round in the deep sea, only on New Year's Eve to climb ashore. Once it came ashore, it flooded wherever it went. Later, people put up red paper at the entrance of their houses, burned firewood and gathered fire in the yard, and chopped vegetables and meat with kitchen knives, making thunderous sounds. The "New Year" fled back to the sea. So there is the New Year's Eve to put up couplets, hanging lanterns, wearing new clothes, but also chopping dumplings dumplings, dumplings, dumplings, and at night to gather the fire, burning firewood, - this is the New Year. So how did the ancient people celebrate the New Year? Let's first listen to this "New Year's Day Song" --- twenty-three sacrifice Zaotian, twenty-four write couplets, twenty-five make tofu, twenty-six cut New Year's meat, ...... ...... the first two kowtowers, the first three, the first four play ball, the first five, the first six jumping monkeys, ............ "over a big year, busy half a year! ", the ancients from the waxing of the month began to busy "annual affairs", until after the New Year's Eve, the year is over. Then we trace the ancients of the "year step", the first to sacrifice the stove - Zao Wang is the annual festival of worship of the gods in the most visible one, the custom of sacrificing the stove very early, is the first people of the fire, the stove of gratitude, reverence for the expression of feelings. In the legend, the Yellow Emperor, Emperor Yan and Zhu Rong were all Zao deities. In later times, the popular god of the stove was surnamed Zhang, with the character Ziguo, who looked like a beautiful woman. He had a wife named "Qing Ji", six daughters all named "Chachai", and several generals. In addition to being in charge of the stove fire, he also had to examine what was being done on earth and report it to the Emperor of Heaven. People also used wine lees, caramelized sugar and sticky cakes to "bribe" the god of the stove, and at the same time murmured prayers, begging him to go up to heaven to say good words. This custom has been passed down to the present day, but the time is on the twenty-fourth day of the Lunar New Year, and the sacrificial food has been simplified into "zaosugar zaocake", but if you pay attention, you will certainly still hear grandma and mom urging Zaoshen to say good words to heaven, but don't say anything bad. ...... Fireworks In a year in addition, the spring breeze sends warmth into the tusu, thousands of households pupil day, always put the new peach for the old symbol. --Wang Anshi, the first firecracker is a tool of witchcraft, the role is to drive away the demons and ghosts. The original firecrackers were not like the current firecrackers, but the real bamboo, that is, burning bamboo, the sound of crackling, to scare the ghosts and monsters. Tusu is Tusu wine, which means to kill the ghosts and wake up the human soul. It is said that drinking this wine on the morning of the first day of the year, you can keep a year without getting sick, and later on, they will drink the wine of the Spring Festival collectively known as "Tusu wine". Peach symbols, also known as "peach plate", is the predecessor of the Spring Festival couplets. Ancient people believe that peach wood is the essence of the five woods, can control the ghosts, so from the Han Dynasty onwards, it is useful to use the peach for the aversion to victory of the custom, to peach wood for peach people, peach prints, peach plate, peach symbols to ward off evil spirits. The transformation of peach symbols into spring scrolls is said to have originated from Meng Chang, the lord of Shu in the Five Dynasties. Paper spring scrolls flourished only in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Today's Spring Festival couplets are meant to render the atmosphere of New Year's festivals, wishing good luck and seeking good fortune, and have lost the role of the old Spring Festival couplets in repelling evils, but also rich in content and diverse forms. After writing the couplets, it is time to prepare the New Year's food. There are a lot of New Year's diets, such as rice cakes, New Year's Eve rice, New Year's Eve dumplings, etc. There are also witchcraft flavors. In addition, there are also foods with a strong witchcraft flavor, such as peach soup, cypress wine, pepper wine, and wuxing pan. Peach soup is a soup made from peaches, cypress wine is a kind of wine made from cypress leaves, and pepper wine is wine made from pepper seeds, which was drunk on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar to ward off evil spirits and pray for good luck. Five Xin plate that is to onion, ginger and other five kinds of spicy food in the plate, also known as spring plate. Commonly known as the evil, in addition to the plague, through the five viscera, but also has the meaning of congratulations on the new. Hotel cold light alone do not sleep, the guest heart what to turn miserable. The hometown tonight, thinking of thousands of miles, frosty temples tomorrow and another year. New Year's Eve is the night of reunion, the Chinese people are difficult to solve a reunion knot, even if the people in the end of the world, but also in the New Year's Eve to rush home to eat New Year's Eve dinner, the New Year's Eve. Home on New Year's Eve is an extraordinarily warm and sweet space, and in history even prisoners were released from jail to go home for a reunion. The whole family sits at the table and begins the process of "reunion" and "observance". First, a "New Year's dinner" meal after the family reunion to observe the New Year. At this time, the younger generation of children to the parents of the father and grandfather salute to say goodbye, the old people to share the New Year's Eve money. New Year's Eve money, also known as "betting money," "on behalf of the year-old money," "year-old money," originally used to aversion to drive away evil spirits, to help small children in the New Year, and later generations are used to express affection and love. After the New Year's Eve dinner but also "night", the family ate snacks, or laughing and playing, or words of fine rain, waiting for dawn, this is the vigil. In addition, New Year's Eve, there is a mirror to listen to, according to the field silkworms, selling dementia, playing ash heap and other customs, as a way to divine the year's good and bad luck and blame, and pray for a new year, the children smart, everything as you wish. "New Year's Eve in the countryside, from Lunar New Year until the first half of the month, a full month and a half of the sound of gongs and drums, the sound of monotonous, but touched the heart of each of us Chinese people. It was at this time that ...... found the spring flowers blooming." Yes, the spring flowers are blooming, the new year has come! Ancient people will be the first eight days of the new positive respectively to six animals and people, valley called. The first day of the first month is the day of the chicken, that is, an auspicious day. Ancient people used chickens to ward off evil spirits by killing chickens at the door or posting pictures of chickens at the door. Starting from New Year's Day, people began to busy themselves with New Year's greetings and festivals. Worship in the Han Dynasty has been popular, the group of ministers in the first day of the first month of the day into the palace to worship, the emperor and the ministers of the same music. To the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the official New Year's Eve has developed into a ritual of the virtual, often "looking at the door to throw prick", regardless of whether they recognize. Poetry as evidence: do not seek to meet but through the visit, the famous paper towards the full my hut. I also cast a number of paper with people, the world is not suspected of simple false. In the folk belief, the first to the fourth, is the new year's carnival days, to the fifth before returning to the normal life. The fifth day of the New Year is also called "the fifth day of the year", and the customary activity on this day is to "send the poor", while for merchants, the fifth day of the year is the day of the opening of the business. The activities of the first month until the fifteenth, only gradually calm ......

On the origin of the four seasons, the ancient Greek myth is so said.

The god in charge of agriculture is called the god of agriculture, and she has an incredibly beautiful daughter named Persephone. One day, Persephone was picking flowers on the earth, when the earth suddenly cracked open, and the king of the underworld reached out with a big hand and swung her into the underworld. Loss of daughter of the god of agriculture is very painful, do not care about agriculture, resulting in barren fields. The main god Zeus knew about this, he strictly ordered the king of the underworld to release Persephone, but unfortunately, Persephone had eaten a pomegranate in the underworld, she has been unable to leave the underworld completely, and can only have a quarter of the time each year to get together with their mothers, which three-quarters of the time is the earth's three seasons of spring, summer and autumn: mother and daughter reunited after a long period of time is very happy, and the earth is therefore renewed, which is the spring; mother and daughter together with the joyful, and the hundred grasses When mother and daughter are happy together, all grasses and flowers flourish, which is summer; when mother and daughter are about to be separated again, all flowers wither and leaves fall, which is fall; when mother and daughter are separated again and cannot see each other, the earth becomes snowy and frozen again, which is winter. Because only Persephone out of the underworld when the mother and daughter can be reunited in spring, she also became the ancient Greek myth of spring. I have seen an oil painting depicting the god of spring, on which Persephone is wearing a garland of flowers and is full of sunny smiles, which is obviously the image of spring. About spring, Mr. Zhu Ziqing is even better than that, he wrote in his essay "Spring": "Spring is like a doll that has just landed on the ground, from head to toe is new, it grows. Spring is like a little girl, flamboyant, smiling, walking. Spring is like robust youth, with arms and legs of iron, leading us on."

So, are there any stories about the four seasons in China? There are, for example, two miles south of the city of huizhou in anhui province there is a small grasshopper temple, the temple for a human body locust face, eguanbo belt clay idol, its origin is related to the four seasons. According to local old people say, that or ancient times, Confucius traveled with students to Bozhou city south. Zi Lu met an old man who sighed longingly and said, "Three seasons of the year are too hard to bear. Zi Lu was y surprised, so he asked, "How can there be three seasons when there are four seasons? The old man said, "It is three seasons, let's make a bet if you don't believe me." The two of them went to Confucius and asked him to judge. The old man said, "If I lose, I'd rather not have my head! The old man said, "If I lose, I'd rather not have my head!" Zi Lu also said, "If I lose, I'll give you my crown and sash!" But Confucius said, "Listen, Zi Lu, you've lost!" Zi Lu had no choice but to give the old man his crown and sash. When the old man had gone away, Confucius said to Zi Lu, "Don't underestimate the old man, he is the grasshopper god! If he knows the four seasons of the year, he will harm the crops in winter! Let's just give him the seasons of spring, summer and fall, so that he won't harm the crops in winter! As it turned out, there were never any locust plagues in winter, and the people even built a temple in its honor - the small one mentioned above - in order to beg for no locust plagues.

Of course, both of these Chinese and foreign myths are mostly fun.

We can assume that humans all over the world have the **** same ancestors, and the same stories have been told since ancient times. Later, they gradually migrated and branched out into different ethnic groups, and the four seasons of spring, summer, fall, and east are still the same today because they are closely related to life. Similarly, the Eskimos who live in the Arctic also have a saying about spring, summer, fall, and east, but it has a different meaning to their lives because in the Arctic both summer and winter are just as cold and frozen.

In our ancient China, there were four seasons in Xia, Shang, Zhou, and Spring and Autumn (21st century BC ---- 476 BC). In the Xia Dynasty, the Tian Gan (Heavenly Stem) method of solar calendar appeared, and in the Shang Dynasty, it developed into the Stem and Branches method of solar calendar. And the appearance of the four seasons is in earlier times, the earliest development of heaven and earth, yin and yang, taiji, two meters, four elephants, eight trigrams, etc., in accordance with the twenty-four seasons, a season *** six seasons, that is, the four seasons as a basis for the algorithm corresponding to the four seasons.

And as early as in ancient times, there is "Xuan Yuan Huangdi four seasons poem" circulated, so it can be seen that the four seasons is as early as 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, there is a history of a statement before.

The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the Spring Festival, also known as the lunar (lunar) year, commonly known as "New Year". This is one of the grandest and most lively ancient traditional festivals in China. The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han Chinese. However, China is a multi-ethnic country, in addition to the Han Chinese, there are Manchu, Mongolia, Yao, Zhuang, white, mountain, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong, Li and other dozen of minority groups also have the custom of Spring Festival. The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated in the Yinshang period at the beginning and end of the year to sacrifice to the gods and ancestors. There are many legends about the Spring Festival. In ancient times, the Spring Festival was called "New Year's Day", "New Year's Day" and "New Year's Day". It was only after the Xinhai Revolution that the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was officially named the Spring Festival.

The Spring Festival, as its name suggests, is the festival of spring. With the arrival of spring, everything is renewed, and a new season of sowing and harvesting is about to begin. People have enough reasons to welcome this festival with songs and dances. So, before the festival, New Year's messages in red paper and yellow characters are put on the door faces. When the spring girl came to the door, she would read over the sentences that sent good wishes for the new year, and this reading, good luck really came. The same symbolism of things hanging red lanterns and paste "Fu" word and the God of Fortune and so on, "Fu" word must also be posted upside down, passers-by read "Fu down", that is, "Fu to". The word "Fu" must be posted upside down, and when passers-by read "Fu upside down", it means "Fu has arrived". Chinese New Year is a festival of family reunion. Children who have left home have to travel thousands of miles to return to their parents' homes. The night before the actual New Year's Eve is called the Night of Reunion, when families sit around and make dumplings. The way to make dumplings is to make the dough first, and the word "he" means "together"; the word "dumpling" harmonizes with the words "交", "合" and "交", "合" and "交". and "交 "means to get together, so dumplings are used to symbolize the reunion. The festive atmosphere lasts for a month. Before the first day of the first month, there are ceremonies such as sacrificing to the stove, ancestor worship; in the festival, there are ceremonies such as giving children the New Year's money and paying respect to friends and relatives; half a month after the festival is the Lantern Festival, which is filled with lanterns, visitors, and unprecedented, and the Spring Festival is considered to be the end of the Spring Festival after the Lantern Festival.

Another name for the Spring Festival is the New Year. What is "Nian"? It is an imaginary animal that brings bad luck to people. When "Nian" comes, trees wither and no grass grows; when "Nian" passes, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. "How can the year pass? Need to use firecrackers, so the custom of burning firecrackers.

So how is the "year" actually come? There are two main folk theory, one theory: according to legend, in ancient China, there is a kind of monster called "year", head long tentacles, ferocious and abnormal. "Year" long years of living deep under the sea, every New Year's Eve only climbed ashore, devouring livestock and harming human life. Therefore, every New Year's Eve, the people of villages and hamlets, old and young, fled to the mountains to avoid the harm of the "year" beast. New Year's Eve this year, the people of Peach Blossom Village is helping the old and young to take refuge in the mountains, from outside the village came to a begging old man, see his hand on crutches, arm with a bag, silver beard flowing, eyes like a star. Folks have sealed the windows and locked the door, some packing, some cattle and sheep, everywhere people shouting and horse neighing, a scene of panic in a hurry. At this time, who has the heart to care for the old man begging. Only the east end of the village, an old woman gave the old man some food, and advised him to quickly go up the mountain to avoid the "year" beast, the old man stroked his beard and laughed: Granny, if you let me stay at home for a night, I must be the "year" beasts out of the way. The old woman looked closely, see his hair, hale and hearty, extraordinary. But she still continue to persuade, begging the old man smiled but did not say. The old woman had no choice but to leave her home behind and take refuge in the mountains. In the middle of the night, the "New Year" beast broke into the village. It found that the atmosphere in the village is different from previous years: the old lady's house at the east end of the village, the door is plastered with big red paper, and the house is brightly lit. "The beast shivered and gave a strange cry. "Nian" stared angrily at the old lady's house for a moment, and then pounced on her with a wild cry. Near the door, the yard suddenly came "bang bang pop" sound of explosions, "year" trembling, no longer dare to come forward. It turns out that Nian is afraid of the color red, fire and explosions. At this time, the door of the mother-in-law's house was wide open, only to see an old man wearing a red robe in the courtyard laughing. "Nian was so shocked that he fled in disarray. The next day was the first day of the first lunar month, and the people who came back were very surprised to see that the village was safe and sound. It was then that the old woman realized what had happened, and hurriedly told the townspeople about the old man's promise. Folks flocked to the old lady's house, only to see the old lady's door with red paper, a pile of unburned bamboo in the yard is still in the "snap" explosion, a few red candles inside the house is still emitting the remaining light. Ecstatic villagers to celebrate the arrival of good luck, have changed into new clothes wearing new hats, to friends and relatives to say hello. This incident soon spread in the surrounding villages, people know the way to drive the beast. Since then every year on New Year's Eve, home red couplets, firecrackers; Household candlelight, keep the night. Early in the morning on the first day, but also to visit friends and relatives to say hello. This custom is more and more widely spread, and has become the grandest traditional Chinese folk festival. Another theory is that China's ancient character book put the "year" character in the Wo Department, to show that the wind and rain, the five grain harvest. As grains and cereals are usually ripe once a year. Therefore, "Nian" has been extended to the name of the year.

China's ancient folk although there has long been the custom of the New Year, but then it is not called the Spring Festival. Because then the Spring Festival, refers to the twenty-four seasons in the "spring". In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Spring Festival was generally referred to as the entire spring season. It is said that the Chinese New Year was officially named Spring Festival after the Xinhai Revolution. Because of the change to the solar calendar at that time, in order to distinguish between the lunar and solar festivals, so the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar had to be renamed "Spring Festival".

Relating to the origin of the year, folklore has circulated such a legend: in ancient times, there was a demon called "year", often disturbing the people, killing and setting fires, doing nothing bad. The people thought of a lot of ways are not able to invade and kill it. When the people were ready to move their families out of the city, a strong man appeared and willingly sacrificed his life to die with Nian in exchange for the people's peace and happiness. Later, the strong man fought with Nian in a life-and-death struggle in the place where Nian frequented. In the end, Nian was killed, and the brave man also died. People in order to commemorate the strong man, congratulations on getting a new life, will be in the "year" was killed on this day to hold a variety of grand celebrations, and firecrackers, posting couplets to drive away the evil, and gradually formed a habit, passed down, since then, mankind has a "new year

New Year is the common name of the Spring Festival, talking about spring, naturally think of summer, fall, winter, and more will think of a year with 24 festivals 365 days. So who made the disorderly world orderly and the chaotic heaven and earth clear? It was Emperor Yao. It was Emperor Yao who first stood at the forefront of scientific research and stepped into the dark nature to explore and trace the laws, search for light, and gain insight into heaven and earth.

"Huaxia Shangguzhi - Five Thousand Years of Evolution" records that Yao, who became the chief, was as vast and omnipresent in benevolence as the heavens, and as subtle and omniscient in wisdom as the gods. ...... Yao asked Chong and Li to specialize in observing the sky and divining the will of heaven. As time went by, Chong and Li actually became two astronomers! They also taught Xihe and Xizhong what they knew about astronomy, so that more people could understand the signs of the sky. After Yao appointed the agricultural official Houji, farming became more and more developed, and he also felt that sowing and harvesting must be mastered in the four seasons, and mastering the four seasons must be mastered in the celestial phenomena. Therefore, Yao called Xihe and Xizhong, and ordered Xihe to observe the heavenly signs carefully, and formulate the calendar according to the operation of the sun, the moon and the stars, so that people could be engaged in production according to the order of the day. He ordered Xizhong to live in the eastern seashore to observe and record the orientation and time of sunrise, and to take the day of day and night equinox as the vernal equinox; he ordered Xishu to live in Mingdu in the south, and to observe how the sun moved southward to set the summer solstice; he ordered Wazu to live in Migu in the west, and to measure the sunset specially to set the autumnal equinox; he ordered Washu to live in Yudu in the north, and to observe the sun's orientation of moving from the south to the north to set the winter solstice. After Yao had finished his assignment, he added: "I tell you, you can have a cycle of about 366 days, and for the remaining days, use the intercalary month to solve the problem, so that spring, summer, autumn and winter can be well determined. After determining the four seasons, the year can naturally be determined."

Looking through the "Shangshu - Yao Hall" can be seen: (Emperor Yao) "was ordered Hsihe, Chin as Haotian, calendar image of the sun, moon and stars, the police authorized the people time. Sub-order Xizhong,...... the emperor said: consulting! Ruxi and and, period of 300 six days six days, to leap month set the four hours, into the year ......" According to this can be seen, the emperor Yao set the lunar calendar is indisputable.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve refers to the evening of the last day of the month of Lunar New Year every year, which is connected with the Spring Festival (the first day of the first month of the year). The word "除" in "New Year's Eve" means "to go; to change; to alternate", and the meaning of "New Year's Eve" is "the end of the month and the end of the year". ", people have to get rid of the old part of the new, there is the old year to this in addition, the next year another new year's meaning, is the lunar calendar throughout the year the last night. Therefore, the activities during this period are centered around the removal of the old part of the new, eliminate disasters and pray for blessings as the center.

Zhou, Qin period of the end of each year, the palace to hold a "large exorcism" ceremony, drums to expel the plague of ghosts, known as the "expel", and then called the day before the New Year's Eve for the small in addition to the small New Year's Eve; New Year's Eve for the big in addition to the New Year's Eve