On December 22, the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution by consensus to designate the Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) as a United Nations holiday, according to **.
The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese, and every year before the festival, the Chinese who are away from home rush home, forming a wave of homecoming that shocks the world. So, when did the Spring Festival begin?How many years has it been since then?
Yuan Ri New Year's picture part Ming Li Shida.
The first day of the first month of the summer calendar is New Year's Day, which lasted for 1920.
In the pre-Qin period, the first day of the year, that is, the first day of the first month of the summer calendar, was commonly known as "Yuan Ri", and later it was also called New Year's Day. "Shangshu Shundian" contains: On the first day of the month, Shunge is in Wenzu, inquired in Siyue, opens four gates, Ming four eyes, and reaches four congs. The "first day of the first month" here is the first day of the first month.
In ancient times, due to different calendars, the date of "Yuan Day" is not fixed, if it is converted according to the summer calendar, the "Yuan Day" of the Xia Dynasty is set on the first day of the first month of the summer calendar, the "Yuan Day" of the Shang Dynasty is the first day of the twelfth month of the summer calendar, and the "Yuan Day" of the Zhou Dynasty is the first day of the November of the summer calendar.
Because "Yuan Ri" is the beginning of a year, a month, and a day, the ancients attached great importance to it. Zhou customs, on the day of the first day, the court has sacrifices, banquets and drinks, and the people also have the custom of drinking spring wine. In the "Book of Songs", it is said: Friends drink and feast, and they say that they kill lambs. Standing in the court, he is called a gentleman, and his longevity is boundless. Some scholars believe that this is the scene where everyone gathers and drinks together around the New Year's Day. But at this time, the "Yuan Day" has not yet clearly formed a festival.
The Qin Dynasty used the 颛顼 calendar, with the summer calendar October as the first year. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Qin system was also inherited, until the seventh year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (104 BC), the Taichu calendar was used to restore the summer system, and the first month of the summer calendar was still the first month. From then to now, the first day of the first month of the summer calendar is the first day, and it has not changed so far. And the Yuanri festival custom was also formed and fixed at this time.
In October 1911, after the liberation of Wuhan, representatives of independent provinces gathered in Nanjing. Sun Yat-sen returned from overseas and raised the issue of "correcting Shuo". Ma Junwu later recalled this meeting:
Mr. (Sun Yat-sen) also said: The 13th day of this month (11th lunar month) is the first day of January in the solar calendar, if you raise me as the big **, I plan to take office on the day of the inauguration, and at the same time announce that China will change to the Gregorian calendar, and the day is the Chinese ** New Year's Day, what do you think?
Sun Yat-sen's proposal met with considerable resistance and few supporters. In the end, it was Ma Junwu who did the work, emphasizing that "Mr. Zhongshan was very persistent in this matter, and he hoped that his colleagues would reluctantly agree to it, and it was approved."
On January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen took the oath of office as the provisional great-great-**, adopted the solar calendar, and set the first day of January in the solar calendar as New Year's Day. In order to distinguish, the people of the time called the first day of January of the solar calendar as "the first year of the year", and the first day of the first month of the summer calendar was called the "new year of the people".
In 1914, in view of the fact that the people were psychologically accustomed to using the summer calendar, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Beiyang ** proposed in a submission to Yuan Shikai: "It is proposed to set the New Year's Day of the lunar calendar as the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival as the Summer Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival as the Autumn Festival, and the Winter Solstice as the Winter Festival." As a result, the first day of the first month of the summer calendar was renamed "Spring Festival". More than a month later, the first day of the first month was named after the "Spring Festival", which was exactly 110 years.
What holiday customs have been abandoned.
In the Han Dynasty, on the day of the first day (New Year's Day), although there were no firecrackers made of gunpowder, people would also roast bamboo knots with fire in front of the hall steps to make it make a huge crackling sound, which was called firecrackers.
The Yuan-Ri Dynasty was also formed in the Han Dynasty. On the New Year's Day of the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty, hundreds of civil and military officials had to enter the palace before dawn to congratulate the emperor, and the emperor was also enthusiastic to receive congratulations to the Deyang Palace. In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the ministers left, the emperor also sent a piece of jade to the ministers. Later, the courtesy became more and more solemn, and the emperor not only rewarded things, but also wine and food, and let people perform programs. The illusions of that era were still very attractive.
Know that everyone cares about food. What did the people of the Han Dynasty drink?There is peach soup, which is sake boiled with peaches. In the minds of the Chinese people, peaches can drive away ghosts and evil spirits. Now the little daughter-in-law in the countryside will still hold a peach branch in her hand when she returns to her parents' house with her child. At first, the people of the Han Dynasty dipped a whip in peach soup and sprinkled it on the walls to ward off evil spirits. Later, peach soup became a drink, and everyone drank it on the first day. In addition, there is cypress wine, cypress evergreen, take its longevity;Pepper wine, pepper is a kind of vanilla, take its warmth, fragrance, and the meaning of many children, but also imply auspiciousness.
The Han Dynasty also banned the killing of chickens on New Year's Day. This is probably because Liu Bang was chased by Xiang Yu and avoided in a well in Xingyang, and it happened that two turtledoves fell on the well. Therefore, in order to repay the favor, the emperor of the Han Dynasty forbade the killing of birds such as turtledoves on the first day.
We now have the custom of greeting the New Year. This custom was also recorded in writing during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. "The young and the old are dressed properly, and they congratulate each other." Then, in terms of diet, on the day of the Yuan Day, people have more things to eat, such as Tusu wine, glue tooth dumplings, Wuxin plates, and ghost pills, mainly to drive away evil spirits. In addition, there are also two or seven pieces of pockmarked seeds and adzuki beans each on this day, all of which are also to ward off the plague and eliminate the plague.
The most surprising thing is that at that time, people had to swallow an egg raw on the first day, "called refining the form". At the beginning of the opening of heaven and earth, chaos was like a chicken, Pangu survived in the meantime, and then broke the chaos and opened heaven and earth. Swallowing chicken raw, probably also hopes that people will open up a new world of life like Pangu.
But by the time of Liang, Buddhism was prevalent, and the custom of eating eggs was gone.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the folk Yuan Dynasty wrote the word "gradually ear" in the door book to drive away ghosts and evil spirits. What does "gradual ear" mean?In fact, it stemmed from a misunderstanding. Duan Chengshi's "Youyang Miscellaneous":
Wu Zhou sometimes has a Taoist priest Fei Gradual, who can see ghosts. Exorcising ghosts and controlling ghosts, Taoist priest Li Jun wrote a letter to recommend it to the then great official Boling Cui Gong, the letter has "today's ghost hunting, not as gradual ear", spread to the society, I don't know the reason, only know that "gradual ear" is the best way to control ghosts, so he wrote the word "gradual ear" on the door to drive away the ghosts. People follow suit, and it becomes customary.
During the Tang Dynasty, some places would climb trees to take magpie nests, burn them and throw them in the latrine, it is said that this can avoid military disasters, and now I can't tell what the principle is. In short, on New Year's Day, the ancient people had a variety of customs, some of which have been preserved to this day, and some of which flourished for a while and gradually disappeared and were only preserved in the literature. (ENDS).