The history and legends of the Spring Festival
The Spring Festival is the Chinese New Year.This festival originated in ancient times and developed It was not officially named the Spring Festival until the period of the Republic of China, and the festival date was set as the first day of the first lunar month.Due to the long history of the Spring Festival, there are many legends and stories about the Spring Festival, such as the legend of the Nian beast.
The origin of the Spring Festival
The Spring Festival is the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, also known as the lunar year, commonly known as "Chinese New Year".This is the most solemn and lively festival in our country, commonly known as "New Year’s Festival".There are many theories about the origin of the Spring Festival, among which there are several representative ones.The Spring Festival originates from wax sacrifices, from witchcraft rituals, from ghost festivals and so on.One of the most widely accepted sayings is that the Spring Festival arose during the Yu and Shun periods.One day in 2000 BC, Shun succeeded the emperor and led his subordinates to worship heaven and earth.Since then, people have regarded this day as the beginning of the year.It is said that this is the origin of the Lunar New Year, later called the Spring Festival.
Evolution and Development of the Spring Festival
Ancient Times:The Ages of the Years, that is, the method of the era of stems and branches.The handle of the Big Dipper starts from due east-north (yin position, Houtian Bagua Gen position), and rotates clockwise once, which is called one year old (photographing).Dou refers to Yin as Chunzheng (first month), the month of "Jianzheng" is Yin month, and the beginning of spring is the beginning of the year.(Astral calendar)
Xia, Shang and Zhou:The first month of the Xia calendar is in Mengchun, the first month of the Shang calendar is in December in winter, and the first month of the Zhou calendar is in November in winter.(Lunar calendar)
After Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms, the Qin calendar (Zuanxu calendar) was used, and the first month was in October in winter.(Lunar calendar)
The Qin calendar (Zuanxu calendar) was used in the early Han Dynasty.In the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, that is, in 104 BC, astronomers Tang Du, Luoxiahong, Deng Ping and others formulated the "Taichu Calendar" (also known as the "Eighty-one Divided Law Calendar"), and absorbed the solar terms of the Ganzhi Calendar.The ingredients are used as a calendar supplement to guide farming, and the first day of the year is changed from October 1st in winter to January 1st in spring.
After the Han Dynasty, several emperors had changed the calendar and the beginning of the year.After Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, he stipulated that the beginning of the year was the beginning of the lunar new year, which was Yin Zheng.Cao Rui, Emperor Wei Ming, was also changed to Yin Zheng for a time.After Wu Zetian proclaimed emperor, he changed the country name to "Zhou" and adopted Zhou Zheng.Since then, successive dynasties have switched to Xiazheng, with the first day of January as the beginning of the year.
Through generations of development, later generations gradually perfected the Chinese calendar on the basis of the early calendar.Since then, China has been using the Chinese calendar until now.After 1970, "Xia Li" was renamed "Lunar Calendar" (lunar calendar, also known as yin and yang calendar)).
After the Revolution of 1911, the Gregorian calendar (a type of solar calendar, also known as the Gregorian calendar) was gradually used.Later, in order to distinguish the two New Years from the Chinese calendar and the Gregorian calendar, since the first day of the first month of the summer calendar is just before and after the "Li Chun" solar term, one of the twenty-four specific seasons that represent seasonal changes in the Ganzhi calendar, the first day of the first month of the first month of the Chinese calendar (lunar calendar) was used.It was renamed "Spring Festival", and the 1st month of the Gregorian calendar was renamed "New Year’s Day".
In July 1913 (the second year of the Republic of China), Yuan Shikai approved the first day of the first lunar month as the Spring Festival, and agreed that the Spring Festival would be a regular holiday, which began in 1914.Since then, the beginning of the Lunar New Year has been changed from the previous "New Year" to "Spring Festival".
The historical story of the Spring Festival
Wan Nian creates the perpetual calendar
According to legend, a long time ago, there was a young man named Wan Nian, who saw that the seasons were chaotic at that time , there is a plan to set the season.Inspired by the movement of tree shadows and the dripping springs on the cliffs, he designed a sundial and a clepsydra to measure the time, so he has a perpetual calendar.It is said that the Spring Festival comes from the perpetual calendar created by Wannian youth.
Shun follows the tribal leader
It is said that one day in 2000 BC, Shun (the leader of the ancient tribal alliance) succeeded the leader of the tribal alliance and led his subordinates to worship heaven and earth.Since then, people have regarded this day as the first day of the first lunar month (the beginning of the year).It is said that this is the origin of the Lunar New Year, later called the Spring Festival.
The Legend of the Nian Beast
There is a legend about the origin of the Spring Festival.In ancient China, there was a monster called "Nian", which lived deep on the seabed for many years and only climbed ashore every New Year’s Eve.People fled to the deep mountains to escape the damage of the "Nian" beast.Later, on New Year’s Eve, an old man came from outside the village and told people how to drive away the "Nian" beast.It turned out that Nian was most afraid of red, fire and explosions.From then on, every New Year’s Eve, every family posted red couplets and set off firecrackers; Early in the morning of the first day of the new year, I also have to go to my relatives and friends to say hello.The more and more this custom spread, it became the Spring Festival.
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