Time of the Spring Festival
Lunar calendar: January 1st -- January 15th
The traditional Spring Festival is also from lunar December 23th which is the day of sacrificing the Kitchen God to next lunar January 15th which is the lantern festival among which the new year's Eve and the first day of the new year are the high tide.
Interpretation of the Festival
The Spring Festival Day is the first day of the lunar year.
Origins of the festival
There are about 40,000 years' history of the Spring Festival. It is the most popular and most solemn Chinese traditional festival. Spring Festival in the ancient times referred to the start of spring in the 24 solar terms in lunar calendar. After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it was changed into the end of the year and referred to the whole spring. People took it as the beginning of a new year. On September 27th, 1949, the new year from Jan.1st to Jan.15th was set as Spring Festival.
Related legend of the Festival
Spring Festival is called "Guo Nian" in Chinese. There are two characters "Guo" and "Nian". "Guo" means spend a period of time or pass a period of time while "Nian" means year. But the original meaning of "Nian" is different. It was said that in ancient times, there was the most ferocious beast in the world which was called "Nian". It grew bigger than the camel, ran faster than the wind and yelled louder than the thunder. It ate anything it met including human beings and livestocks. People's lives were seriously threatened. To punish "Nian", God locked it in the deep mountains and allowed it out once a year. In the long-term practice, people found "Three Fears" of the beast "Nian" - Red Color, Loud Noise and Fire. Thus one night on December 30th in lunar year, people put red papers on the door, beat gongs, sounded drums, played fireworks and kept the light on the whole night. When "Nian" came out, it was scared back and kept out of the village. Even when the beast came down the mountains in the daylight, it also saw red on the door, heard noise on the ground and it went back again. From then on, "Nian" never came out and it was said hungry to die in the mountain. After that year, driving away "Nian" was changed into spending the easy year. The beast disappeared, but the custom of driving away "Nian" was left and kept.
The red New Year couplets, brilliant lights, sharp firecrackers, loud drums and gongs are all Spring Festival elements.
Scope of application
Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han nationality, which is the major nationality in China. Other tens of nationalities also have Spring Festival but with their national characteristics which is another kind of celebration.
Customs
Staying-up
Fireworks
Posting Couplets
Paying New Year Calls
Eating Dumplings
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