In modern Chinese folk customs, the Spring Festival is also called the New Year. In fact, the origins of the New Year and the Spring Festival are very different.
So how did “year” come about? There are two main sayings among the folks: one is that in ancient times, there was a ferocious monster called “Nian”, who went from village to house on the 30th of the twelfth lunar month, hunting for human flesh, and slaying creatures. One night on the 30th of the twelfth lunar month, “New Year” arrived in a village, and it happened that two shepherd boys were playing cow whips. “Nian” suddenly heard the whip sound in mid-air, fleeing in fright. It rushed to another village, and looked directly at the door of a family, wearing a red dress. It didn’t know what it was, and was so scared that it turned around and fled. Later, it came to a village again and looked at the door of a family, and saw the bright lights inside, which made it dizzy, and had to slip away again with its tail between. From this, people knew that the “New Year” has the weakness of being afraid of ringing, red, and light, and they thought of many ways to resist it, and gradually evolved into today’s New Year custom.
Another way of saying is that the ancient Chinese calligraphy books put the word “nian” in the He Department to show that the weather is smooth and the grains are abundant. Because Guhe is generally cooked once a year. The “nian” has been extended to the name of the year.
Although the customs of the Chinese New Year have long existed among the people in ancient my country, it was not called the Spring Festival at that time. Because at that time the Spring Festival referred to the “Lichun” in the twenty-four solar terms.
The Northern and Southern Dynasties referred to the Spring Festival as the whole spring. It is said that the official name of the Lunar New Year is the Spring Festival after the Revolution of 1911. Since the solar calendar was to be used at that time, in order to distinguish between the two festivals of agriculture and yang, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar had to be renamed “Spring Festival”.
Post time: Feb-09-2021