Tianshui's Folkways and Customs 300 words essay

The Spring Festival is also called the lunar (lunar) year, commonly known as "New Year". It is one of the grandest and most lively ancient traditional festivals in China. The festive atmosphere will last for a month. Before the first day of the first month, there are sacrificial stove, ancestor worship and other ceremonies; festival in the children's New Year's money, friends and relatives to pay tribute to the New Year and other ceremonies; half a month after the festival and the Lantern Festival, when the lanterns are full of the city, the streets are full of tourists, unprecedented, after the Lantern Festival, the Chinese New Year is considered to be the end of the festival.

The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated in the Yin Shang period at the end of the year to the gods and ancestors. There are many legends about it.

The Spring Festival: Modern folk customarily called the Spring Festival also called the New Year. In fact, the origins of the New Year and the Spring Festival are very different.

So how did the "year" actually come about?

One theory is:

According to legend, in ancient China there was a monster called "Nian", which had a long head and horns, and was very fierce. "It lived at the bottom of the sea for many years, and only climbed ashore on New Year's Eve to devour livestock and hurt people.

Therefore, on New Year's Eve, people in villages and hamlets fled to the mountains to escape from the Nian beast.

This New Year's Eve, Peach Blossom Village, the people are supporting the old and young to take refuge in the mountains, from the village came a begging old man, see his hand on crutches, arm with a bag, silver beard flowing, eyes like a star.

The townspeople have sealed the windows and locked the door, some packing, some cattle and sheep, everywhere people shouted and hissed, a scene of panic in a hurry. The first thing I'd like to say is that I don't want to be a part of it, but I'd like to be a part of it.

Only an old woman at the east end of the village gave the old man some food and advised him to go to the mountains to avoid the "New Year" beasts, the old man stroked his beard and laughed: "If you let me stay at home for a night, I will definitely "New Year" beasts away.

The old woman looked at him with astonished eyes, and saw that he had 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 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 house was ablaze with fire. "The beast shuddered and gave a strange cry.

"The year" stared angrily at the grandmother's house for a moment, then screamed furiously and pounced on her. Close to the door, the yard suddenly came "bang, bang, bang, bang," the sound of explosions, "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 courtyard laughing. The "Nian" was shocked and fled in a panic.

The next day was the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, and the people who had returned 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 the townspeople to tell them about the old man's promise.

The townspeople flocked to the old lady's house, only to see the old lady's house door with red paper, a pile of unburned bamboo in the yard is still in the "snap" explosion, a few red wax candles inside the house is still glowing with the remaining light ......

The ecstatic townspeople in order to celebrate the The right auspicious arrival, have to change new clothes and wear new hats, to friends and relatives to say hello. The story spread quickly in the surrounding villages, and people knew the way to drive away the "New Year" beasts.

From then on, every year on New Year's Eve, every family puts up red couplets and sets off firecrackers; every household keeps the candles burning brightly and keeps watch for the new year. Early in the morning on the first day, but also to go to friends and relatives to say goodbye.

This custom has spread far and wide and has become the grandest of all traditional Chinese festivals.

Another theory is:

China's ancient character book put the "year" character in the Wo Department, to show that the wind and rain, the five grain harvest. Since the grains and cereals are usually cooked once a year. The word "year" was then 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".

North and South Dynasties, the Spring Festival refers to the entire spring. It is said that it was after the Xinhai Revolution that the Lunar New Year was officially named the Spring Festival. Because of the change to the solar calendar at that time, in order to differentiate between the lunar and solar festivals, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar had to be renamed "Spring Festival".

Lunar New Year's Eve: is the traditional festivals in China's big festival, quite prominent. The name of the Lantern Festival is derived from the fact that the festival is held on the fifteenth day and night of the first month of the year (Yuan).

The Lantern Festival is also called the "Festival of Lights" and "Lantern Festival" because the main activity of this festival is to release lanterns at night, hence the name. In addition, the Lantern Festival is also called "Shangyuan" and "Shangyuan Festival", which is borrowed from Taoism.

On the formation of the Lantern Festival custom, there are a lot of sayings, but generally changed to the Han Dynasty on the first embryonic form. It is said that during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han family had to sacrifice to a god called "Taiyi". Allegedly, Taiyi was a rather prominent god at that time, the status of the five emperors above, and have benefited from the Han Emperor, so by the worship of the more prosperous. It is rumored that another Han emperor, Han Wendi, was also associated with the Lantern Festival.

This Han Emperor was the general Zhou Bo to calm the "Zhulu's rebellion" to the throne of the emperor, and that the day to calm the rebellion is the 15th day of the first lunar month, so since then every night on the 15th night of the first lunar month, the Han Emperor had to go out of the palace to play, and the people with the fun, and to determine the day for the Lantern Festival. However, and these two Han emperors related to the night of the first month of the fifteenth night festival Taiyi, play, and no record of open lamps, fire, another emperor of the Han Dynasty - Han Mingdi ordered the Lantern Festival Lantern, thus forming the later generations of open lamps, the custom of watching lamps.