The historical significance of the Spring Festival?

The Spring Festival has been celebrated in China for at least three thousand years, and its creation is directly related to the formation of the ancient concept of the calendar year, which, of course, has its roots in the ancient ancestors' sense of time and time consciousness.

Ancient people used astronomy, weather and personnel activities as important references for time changes, and the concept of the year cycle should have been grasped by people before the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. "Er Ya - release of the day" has "summer is said to age, the business is said to sacrifice, the week is said to year, Tang Yu is said to carry." Tang Yu era is probably the late Neolithic period, then to "load" said year, is expressed in the operation of time and change. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in the first year of the first year (104 years ago) to formally determine the first month of the summer calendar for the first year, since then, although the calendar is constantly revised, but the first month of the first year of the time has not changed, the year festival is also fixed. The year is the time mark of agricultural society, reflecting the rhythm of farmers' life, and such a tradition has continued in China for three thousand years.

The Spring Festival, as the first day of the year, was of obvious social significance after the Qin and Han dynasties, with the court using the first day of the year as a time to demonstrate and strengthen the righteousness of the ruler and his ministers, and the civil society using it as a good time for family gatherings in the countryside. From the Qin Dynasty to the middle of the Han Dynasty, the first day of the year was in the tenth month of the summer calendar, and the first day of the tenth month was the New Year. After the middle of the Han Dynasty, the first day of the first month of the year, known as the first day of the first month, the first day of the first month, and so on. The first day of the first month is an important day of celebration for the royal family in the Han Dynasty, and the court will hold a large-scale court meeting. Under the influence of the imperial court, the folk of the Han Dynasty moved the New Year's Day activities from the traditional Lunar New Year's Day and Laminar New Year's Day to the first day of the first month of the year, which was called the first day of the first month of the Han Dynasty. Cui Shi (崔寔) of the Eastern Han Dynasty recorded the rituals and celebrations on the first day of the first month of the Eastern Han Dynasty in his book "The Monthly Orders of the Four Peoples" (四民月令). First of all, sacrificing ancestors and honoring the elders were the main contents of the rituals of the first day of the Han Dynasty. The whole family, regardless of size, according to the order of precedence in the ancestor before the tablets, family members with a joyful mood in turn to the parents of the toast to congratulate. Secondly, to congratulate the clansmen and townspeople. The first day of the family rituals to celebrate the ceremony, people out of the house, visit and congratulate the relatives and neighbors, ...