Does China have New Year's Day?

The ancients had New Year's Day in ancient times. In the Northern Song Dynasty, people got up early on New Year's Day, dressed up, put on new clothes, visited relatives and friends, wished each other a New Year and celebrated it with wine.

The traditional New Year's Day in China refers to the first day of the first month. The concept of "New Year's Day" has different meanings in different times and countries. In China, the concept of "New Year's Day" always refers to the first day of the first month. Before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the calculation method of "the first month" was also very inconsistent. So the month and date of New Year's Day are inconsistent. The lunar calendar in Xia Dynasty is January in spring, December in Shang Dynasty and November in Zhou Dynasty. After Qin Shihuang unified China, October was the first month in winter, that is, the first day of October was New Year's Day. From Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it was stipulated that 1 was the first month of spring, and the first day of 1 was called New Year's Day, which was used until the late Qing Dynasty.

19 1 1 year, the Revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Manchu Dynasty and established the Republic of China. In the first year of the Republic of China, it was decided to use the Gregorian calendar (actually 19 12), and the Gregorian calendar 65438+ 10/was designated as "New Year's Day", but it was not called "New Year's Day". Representatives of the Governor held a meeting in Nanjing and decided to use the Gregorian calendar. The first day of the first month is called "Spring Festival" and the first day of the first month is called "New Year's Day", but it was not officially announced at that time. 1 91265438+1October1,the Republic of China was proclaimed, and Sun Yat-sen was appointed interim president in Nanjing. Sun Yat-sen's oath of office ended with "New Year's Day of the first year of the Republic of China". This is the origin of "New Year's Day" in China. 65438+1 October1Every year marks the arrival of a new year. People are used to calling this day "New Year's Day", commonly known as "Gregorian Year", "Gregorian Year" or "New Calendar Year".

In the Northern Song Dynasty, "New Year's Day" was equivalent to the present Spring Festival. When the national "holiday office" issued a notice, "office workers" had a seven-day holiday. On New Year's Day, in the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, the imperial court will hold a large-scale meeting, and all officials will congratulate the emperor. People call it "platoon war". At this time, envoys from Liao, Korea and Xixia often came to pay their respects.

On New Year's Day during the Northern Song Dynasty, many bustling streets in Beijing were covered with stalls, including hats, combs, pearls, jewelry, clothes, flowers, collars, boots, toys and other commodities. There are also dance halls and karaoke bars, and carriages and horses come and go in an endless stream. At the same time, there are many eating customs. For example, most families eat vegetarian cakes. "Dream of China in East longitude" said: "(Kaifeng New Year's Day) everyone drinks soup and burns Atractylodes, adding the spirit of epidemic attack." Many people also "use a cypress, a persimmon and an orange to open it and order food, indicating that everything is auspicious in a year." In this way, the New Year's Day in the Northern Song Dynasty is really full of festive atmosphere and very lively.

On the morning of New Year's Day, every household in Beijing should get up early, dress up, put on new clothes, visit relatives and friends, wish each other a New Year and celebrate with wine. Since New Year's Day, the government has allowed people to play the game of Guan Pu for three days. The so-called "closing the shop" is a gambling game. The two sides who play this game will agree on a price, and then throw the copper coins into the clay pot or on the ground. According to the subtitles of money, the winner takes the sealed goods and the loser pays. Official shops can be used for large-scale betting, and horses, houses, songs and dances can all be used as gambling funds.