This article**: The people**.
Liu Xiaofeng. People** 2024-02-10 Edition 04).
In Jiachen, we ushered in the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon. Of the twelve zodiac signs, only the dragon is an imaginary beast. "Erya Wing" quotes the words of the Eastern Han Dynasty Wang Fu, saying that the dragon has "three stops and nine similarities", and the dragon head, dragon body, and dragon tail are similar in length, integrating many animal characteristics. With the addition of the dragon, the twelve zodiac signs will bring us from the world around us into a world full of imagination at once. It can be said that the dragon is rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese culture and is the totem and unique spiritual identity of the Chinese nation.
As an important festival inherited by the Chinese nation for thousands of years, the Spring Festival has a status in the minds of Chinese people at home and abroad that is difficult to surpass by any other festival. The Spring Festival also infiltrates us with incomparably rich festival customs, nourishes the national spirit, and unites people's hearts. We have a common memory of the New Year and a common expectation for the New Year. How to make the traditional Chinese New Year continue to glow with vigorous vitality and nourish cultural self-confidence?
You might as well think about the cultural connotation of the dragon during the Spring Festival in the Year of the Dragon. Dragons are first and foremost full of change, "dragons and snakes, things that change." (Lihai Collection) bending and stretching from time to time, change invisible. Secondly, the dragon absorbs the strengths of deer, camels and other animals, and it is also eclectic. Again, the dragon transcends the boundaries of the sky, the earth, and the sea, and is brave enough to break through. Variety, learning from others, and having the courage to break through may be inspiring.
On the one hand, we should embrace the ancient Spring Festival and pass on important cultural traditions such as saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, praying for auspiciousness, family and country reunion, and joy and harmony. On the other hand, we should also use an open mind and a bold attitude to make breakthroughs to look at the renewal of the customs and flavors of the Chinese land. The Chinese nation is full of inventive and creative spirit, and in fact, the Spring Festival customs in history have been constantly evolving. For example, the Spring Festival couplets were developed by the ancients who inherited the custom of hanging peach charms during the New Year, and at the same time added new elements of poetry and calligraphy. The formation of the cultural connotation of the Spring Festival has also gone through a long historical process. Nowadays, from buying creative New Year's goods, to spending a "cultural year" in the museum, from children going home for the New Year, to taking their parents out for the New Year, etc., are all festivals and customs that change with the times, reflecting people's desire to pursue a better life, and also giving new connotations and injecting new energy into traditional festivals.
The intensity and lightness of the New Year's flavor do not lie in the change of form, but in the warmth and strength brought by the emotional resonance and cultural connotation behind it. Let us feel the vitality of the Spring Festival in the inheritance and innovation, in the integration of traditional culture and modern civilization.
The author is an advisor to the China Folklore Society and a professor of history at Tsinghua University