What is the origin and significance of the Spring Festival?

1, the origin of the Spring Festival: According to the research results of modern anthropology and archaeology, there are two primitive beliefs of human beings: one is the belief in heaven and earth, and the other is the belief in ancestors. The origin of traditional festivals is related to ancient primitive beliefs, sacrifices, astronomical phenomena, calendars and other humanistic and natural cultural contents. Most of the traditional festivals in ancient times were formed in the activities of the ancients who chose auspicious day sacrifices to thank the gods of heaven and earth and the ancestors for their kindness.

The early festival culture embodies the ancient people's humanistic spirit of advocating nature, the unity of man and nature, cautiously pursuing the future, and firmly thinking about the source; A series of sacrificial activities contain profound cultural connotations of etiquette, music and civilization. The original intention of the two concepts of Spring Festival and New Year comes from agriculture. In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of the valley "year". Hebe: "in the year, the grain is ripe." .

During the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the Xia calendar came into being, with the full and short moon as the month, and a year was divided into twelve months. Every month, the day when the moon can't be seen is the new moon, and the first day of the first month is called the beginning of a year, also known as the year. The title of the year began in the Zhou Dynasty and was officially set in the Western Han Dynasty, which continues to this day.

2. The significance of the Spring Festival: It contains rich and profound humanistic and natural cultural connotations. As an important part of the long history and culture of the Chinese nation, the Spring Festival reflects the rich social and cultural life of the people.

Before the Spring Festival, people who have left their homes go home as much as possible to reunite with their loved ones and enjoy family happiness. During the Spring Festival, relatives and friends will visit each other, pay New Year greetings, and express their feelings for relatives and friends and good wishes for the New Year. The activities of the Spring Festival are mainly to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, welcome the new year and receive the blessings, offer sacrifices to the gods and ancestors, and pray for a bumper harvest, which has strong national characteristics.

Extended data:

Time evolution of Spring Festival:

In ancient times, the spatial changes of astronomical phenomena were used to mark the time changes of the four seasons. When the bucket handle of Beidou points to Yin (Northeast), it is the node of beginning of spring. In ancient times, Yin was established in the first month, with beginning of spring as the beginning of the year. In the historical development and evolution, due to the changes of dynasties and calendars, the date of the beginning of a year has also changed. The New Year dates in China are not consistent: [14- 15]?

Ancient times: the era method of cadres and branches, with beginning of spring as the beginning of a year. (solar calendar, solar calendar)

Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties: January in spring is the first month of Xia Dynasty, December in Shang Dynasty and November in Zhou Dynasty. (lunar calendar)

After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, it was stipulated that October in winter was the first month. (lunar calendar)

Qin calendar was used in the early Han Dynasty. In the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, namely 104 BC, astronomers, Luo, and others formulated calendars, and absorbed solar terms as supplementary calendars to guide farming, and restored the original winter October to the first month.

After several generations of development, later generations gradually improved the early calendar into the current summer calendar. Since then, China has been using the summer calendar (lunar calendar, also known as lunar calendar or combined calendar of yin and yang) to this day. After 1970, "Summer Calendar" was renamed as "Lunar Calendar".

After the Revolution of 1911, it gradually changed to Gregorian calendar (a kind of solar calendar, also known as Gregorian calendar). Later, in order to distinguish the two New Years, and in view of the fact that the "beginning of spring" in the twenty-four solar terms of the Ganzhi calendar happened around the first day of the first month of the summer calendar, the first day of the first month of the summer calendar (lunar calendar) was renamed as "Spring Festival" and the first day of the first month of the solar calendar was renamed as "New Year's Day".

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Spring Festival