New Year’s Eve, one of the biggest traditional festivals in China, refers to the evening of the last day of the lunar year, and it is also called New Year’s Eve because it often falls on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month. Since the last day of the year is called "Year’s Eve", that night is called "New Year’s Eve". However, due to the lunar calendar, the date of New Year’s Eve may be 30 or 29 at the end of the year. But in any case, it is the end of the lunar year.
According to "Lu’s Spring and Autumn Ji Dong Ji", the ancients used drums to drive out the "ghost of plague" on the day before the New Year, which is the origin of the "New Year’s Eve" festival. It is said that the earliest mention of the name "New Year’s Eve" is the historical records such as "Local Customs" written by Zhou Chu in the Western Jin Dynasty.
In fact, the original meaning of the concepts of Spring Festival and New Year comes from agriculture. "Shuo Wen ● He Bu" records: "Year is ripe. "In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of the valley" year ". The Xia calendar came into being in Xia and Shang Dynasties. The period of the moon’s waning and waning is regarded as a month, and a year is divided into twelve months. Every month, the day when the moon is not seen is the new moon, and the first day of the first month is called the beginning of the year, which is also called the year. The name of Nian began in the Zhou Dynasty, and it was not officially fixed until the Western Han Dynasty, and it continues to this day.
However, in ancient times, the first day of the first month was called "New Year’s Day". Until the victory of the Revolution of 1911 in modern China, in order to conform to the farming season and facilitate statistics, the Nanjing Provisional Government stipulated that the summer calendar should be used among the people, and the Gregorian calendar should be implemented in government agencies, factories, mines, schools and organizations, with the first day of January of the Gregorian calendar as New Year’s Day and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar as the Spring Festival.
New China was founded. At the first plenary session of the China People’s Political Consultative Conference, it was adopted to use the Gregorian calendar era, and the first day of January of the Gregorian calendar was designated as New Year’s Day, commonly known as the Gregorian calendar year. The first day of the first lunar month is usually around beginning of spring, so the first day of the first lunar month is designated as the Spring Festival, commonly known as the lunar calendar.
In the traditional sense, the Spring Festival refers to the sacrificial rites from La Worship on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month or on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with New Year’s Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax. During the Spring Festival, a traditional festival, the Han nationality and most ethnic minorities in our country will hold various celebration activities, most of which are mainly about offering sacrifices to gods and buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, getting rid of the old and spreading the new, welcoming the new year and praying for a good harvest. The activities are rich and colorful, with strong ethnic and local characteristics.
Hold out for the rest of the year
Shounian, the common name is "endure the year". "One night is even two years old, and the five hours are divided into two years." This year’s custom activity has a long history. The folk custom of observing the New Year is mainly manifested in that all houses are lit with the New Year’s fire, and the family is gathered together, and the "New Year’s fire" is kept alive, waiting for the moment to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year.
In ancient times, there were different customs in the north and the south. In the north, the custom of observing New Year’s Eve was mainly "staying up until New Year’s Eve". In some places, on New Year’s Eve, the whole family got together, ate New Year’s Eve, lit candles or oil lamps, chatted around the stove, kept vigil all night, and looked forward to good luck and good luck in the New Year.
There is an interesting story about the origin of the custom of observing the age: in Archaean times, there was a fierce monster scattered in the mountains and forests, and people called them "Nian". Its appearance is ferocious, its nature is ferocious, and it specializes in eating birds and animals and insects. It changes its taste every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian".
Later, people gradually grasped the activity law of "Nian", which went to crowded places every 365 days, and the haunting time was after dark, and when the cock crowed at dawn, they returned to the mountains.
It is precisely because of the accurate date of the ravages of Nian and its fear of red, daytime, firelight and firecrackers that people regard this night as a gateway, which is called Nian Guan, and come up with a whole set of ways to close the New Year: on this day, every household will put up red couplets, window grilles, hang up red lanterns, light bonfires and sound firecrackers, and the whole family will sit together and eat ".
In this way, year after year, gradually formed the custom of staying up all year on New Year’s Eve. As the saying goes: the family reunion is in addition to the old year, and the lanterns are decorated to welcome the new year.
Reporter: Zhang Zhongyi.
Original title: "Celebrating the New Year’s Eve and Celebrating the New Year’s Eve"
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