This year's Spring Festival holiday arrangement has undergone two important changes compared with previous years, one is that there is no holiday on Chinese New Year's Eve, which is very rare in recent years, because in China's traditional Xi customs, Chinese New Year's Eve is an important node for the New Year, and families will go home to reunite and eat Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. In ancient times, no matter how far away from home, people would strive to return home before Chinese New Year's Eve, with the purpose of having a reunion dinner with their families, meaning reunion and happiness. However, this year's Chinese New Year's Eve does not have a holiday, which has brought some unusual changes to people's holiday atmosphere.
Another change is that the Spring Festival holiday for the New Year is longer than in previous years, from 7 days to 8 days. This means that people spend a day together with their families for a longer time. This is good news that everyone can enjoy their vacation more fully and enhance family and friendship.
After the changes in this Spring Festival holiday, someone quoted a long-standing saying: "It is rare to meet the spring in a hundred years, and it is rare to meet the leap month in a thousand years". This phrase expresses the cherishing of the leap month and the awareness of the rarity of its appearance. So what does this sentence mean?
There are actually two parts to this sentence, the first part is "a hundred years of rare spring", which means that it is difficult to have the Spring Festival and the beginning of spring on the same day in 100 years. The beginning of spring is a sign of the beginning of spring, and for Chinese, Spring Festival is an important time for the New Year. According to the lunar calendar, the Spring Festival falls on the first day of the first lunar month, and the beginning of spring is one of the 24 solar terms of the lunar calendar, usually occurring between February 3 or 4, which is very close to the date of the Spring Festival. In 100 years, there is rarely a chance that the Spring Festival and the beginning of spring are on the same day.
The second part is the "Leap Month of the Millennium", which means that it is difficult to have a leap lunar month in 1000 years. A leap month is an extra month added to the lunar calendar, usually created to make up for the time difference between the lunar and solar calendars. According to historical records, the month of Wax has only occurred twice, in 208 and 1574 AD. In addition, there will be no intercalary months for the next few hundred years, and it will not occur again until 3358. Therefore, the preciousness and rarity of the leap month have received a lot of attention.
However, for the conclusive claim that "a hundred years of spring is rare", we need to look at history and data. By consulting the perpetual calendar, it can be found that in the past 100 years, there have been many times when the Spring Festival and the beginning of spring are on the same day. For example, in 1924, the first day of the first lunar month coincided with the beginning of spring;For example, in 1943, the noon of the thirtieth day of the lunar month was the time of the beginning of spring;In the future year 2038, the first day of the first lunar month will also be the same day as the beginning of spring. Therefore, it is not uncommon for there to be many "annual springs" in a hundred years, which does not conform to the saying "rare in a hundred years".
At the same time, it can indeed be said that "a thousand years rarely meet a leap month". Leap months occur to keep the lunar and solar calendar times in sync and avoid the misalignment of the seasons. According to historical data, the month of Wax has only occurred twice, in 208 and 1574 AD. And there will be no leap month again for the next few hundred years, until 3358. Therefore, it can be said that the occurrence of a leap month is very rare.
So, what is the effect of the leap month and the leap month on the Chinese New Year?According to traditional Chinese Xi, there is a saying that "do the right and not do the leap", which means that the first month is a normal month, and the leap month is an additional month. According to this theory, if there is a leap month, it is usually celebrated as if it were a new month. For example, if a person's birthday falls in the first month, even if they were born in a leap month, they will usually have a birthday in the first month instead of a leap month. Therefore, even if there is a leap month, there will only be one Spring Festival, not a leap Spring Festival, and there will be no two holidays.
However, leap months are different from other leap months. In the year of the leap month, after the wax month has passed, the leap month will occur again instead of directly entering the next first month. Therefore, the Chinese New Year's Eve of the leap month is still on the first day of the first lunar month, which is the traditional Chinese New Year's Eve. Therefore, it can be said that the appearance of the leap month does not affect the festival time of the New Year.
In short, although there is a certain exaggeration in the saying that it is rare to meet the spring in a hundred years and a leap month in a thousand years, they also express people's awareness and importance of the scarcity of the leap month. The appearance of the leap month is to keep the time of the lunar calendar and the solar calendar in sync, which is of great significance for the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture and solar terms. Although the frequency of leap months and leap months is relatively low, in the ancient calendar they were the result of wisdom and calculation, rather than random additions.