Information about the Spring Festival, about four hundred words of introduction

LV.1 2011-02-13

Introduction to the Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is one of the grandest and most distinctive traditional festivals of Chinese folklore, and also one of the most lively and ancient holidays. Generally refers to the New Year's Eve and the first day of the first month, is the first day of the year, also known as the lunar year, commonly known as "New Year". However, in the folklore, the Spring Festival traditionally refers to the Lunar New Year festival on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year or the sacrificial stove on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the Lunar New Year, until the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first month as the climax. During the Spring Festival, the Han Chinese and many ethnic minorities in China celebrate with a variety of activities. These activities all focus on worshipping gods and buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, getting rid of the old and bringing in the new, welcoming good fortune, and praying for a good year. The activities are colorful and have strong ethnic characteristics. In Tianjin over the Spring Festival and the habit of hanging Chinese knot, before the New Year's Eve, Tianjin people have to the Tianjin Ancient Culture Street Qiaoxiangge please Chinese knot custom, to take the meaning of Qiaoxiang Nafu.

The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han Chinese people, but dozens of ethnic minorities, such as Manchu, Mongolian, Yao, Zhuang, Bai, Gaoshan, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong, Li and so on, also have the custom of the Spring Festival, but the form of the festival is more of their own national characteristics, more flavorful.

The Spring Festival has different names in different times. In the pre-Qin called "on the day", "yuan day", "change the year", "dedicate the year" and so on; to the two Han period, but also was called "three dynasties", "the first day of the year", "the first day", "the first day"; Wei, Jin and North and South Dynasties called the "yuan Chen", "yuan day", "yuan head", "year dynasty", etc.; to the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming, it is called "New Year's Day", "Yuan", "Year Day", "Xinzheng", "Xinyuan

From the eighth day of the Lunar New Year until the nineteenth day of the first month, the Spring Festival is considered.

Chinese New Year from the

Chinese New Year is called "the first day", "first of the year", "New Year", etc. December 31, 1911, the Republic of China Hubei military government issued the "Internal Affairs" in the "military government of the Republic of China", "the first day of the year", "the first day of the year" and so on. On December 31, 1911, the Republic of China Hubei military government in the release of the "Ministry of internal affairs on the Republic of China to use the solar calendar encyclical", clearly will be called "Spring Festival". To September 27, 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference further clarified the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar known as the "Spring Festival", "Spring Festival" name formally included in the Chinese holiday code. The Spring Festival is commonly known as "New Year's Day".

The oracle bone inscriptions of "Nian" are written with the character "禾" in the upper part and "人" in the lower part. The character for "year" in Jinwen is also the same as the oracle bone script, it is also from 禾 (禾) and 人 (人). In the Small Seal Script, the character for "year" is written as "上禾下千", and in the Shuowen Jiezi (说文解字-禾部), it reads "年" (年), "year" (年), "year" (年). It is pronounced from "禾" and "千". The character for "man" in the Small Seal Script was changed to "thousand", which is why Xu Shen used it, while the character for "thousand" was originally a decorated person, so there is no contradiction in this explanation. "Wo" is a general term for grains, and cannot be misinterpreted as only "wheat". The good or bad of the year, mainly by the growth and harvest of "Wo" to determine the situation, and now has been unearthed in the oracle bone inscriptions in the "Wo" character, almost all look heavy was bent over, it can be seen that it symbolizes a bumper crop of cereal production. What is the meaning of the character "人" under the character "年"? From the oracle bone inscriptions, the character "年" seems to be a man holding grain on his head.

There is another legend:

In ancient China, there was a monster called "Nian", which had tentacles and was very fierce. "It lived deep under the sea for many years, and only climbed ashore on New Year's Eve to devour livestock and hurt people. Therefore, every New Year's Eve, the people of villages and hamlets fled to the mountains with their young and old to avoid the harm of the "year" beast. One New Year's Eve, from outside the village came a begging old man. The villagers were in a hurry and panicked, only the east end of the village, an old woman gave the old man some food, and advised him to go to the mountains to avoid the "New Year" beasts, the old man pulled up his beard and laughed and said: "Granny, if you let me stay at home for one night, I will definitely drive away the "New Year" beasts. " The old woman still continued to persuade the beggar old man smiled but did not say anything.

In the middle of the night, the beast of the year broke into the village. It found that the atmosphere in the village was different from that of previous years: the old lady's house at the east end of the village had a big red paper on the door, and the candles in the house were burning brightly. "The beast shivered and gave a strange cry. Near the door, the yard suddenly came "bang bang pop" sound, "year" trembling, and do not 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 yard laughing. "Nian was so shocked that he fled in disarray. The next day was the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, and the people who came back from their refuge were very surprised to see that the village was safe and sound. It was then that the old woman realized what had happened, and rushed to tell the townspeople about the old man's promise to beg. This incident soon spread in the surrounding villages, people know the way to drive away the "New Year" beast. From then on, every New Year's Eve, home red couplets, firecrackers; household candles brightly, to keep the night. Early in the morning on the first day, but also to go to friends and relatives to say hello. This custom is more and more widely spread, and has become the grandest traditional Chinese folk festival.