Lunar New Year, also known as theSpring Festival, is a very important festival in the Chinese world and culture.
On this important holiday, everyone is reunited with their families. However, do you know the origin of the Lunar New Year? And there are many customs in the New Year, what kind of meaning does it represent? Next, I will divide the most
important festival in Chinese culture into several articles to elaborate for you!
Origins and legends
In the this article, we will firsttalk about the origin of the Lunar New Year and related legends. The most
common thing you hear about the origin of the Lunar New Year is the story of the "Nian Beast".
According to legend, duringthe “Yan Huang period”, there was a monster called "Nian", this monster only came out once a year, and the day it came out was called "New Year". It is said that the Nian Beast eats people, so every time when the
Nian Beast is infested, every household will close the doors and windows, and the whole family will stay inside the house. Later, people found that the Nian Beast was very afraid of red colour and shiny things, also hated noisy sounds.
So everyone thought that every year on the day before the Nian beast appeared, every household was pasted with something red. And on the night of the appearance of the Nian Beast, every household began to bang on the pots and
pans in the house. (It is also said that every household burn bamboo, which will make a crackling sound and a strong fire) because it is very noisy and loud, the Nian beast will be scared away.
The next morning, everyone cameout to celebrate the being safe of the night, so they congratulated each other
when they met!
Another origin story of theLunar New Year is based on the research of historians.
According to research, thelunar year is performed at the end of the year to celebrate a good harvest.
Such sacrifices are seen as a form of communication between heaven and earth, also the ancestors. People celebrate the harvest at the end of the year by offering food to thank the God for their gifts, they also praying for a more abundant
harvest in the coming year. So there was the advent of the lunar year.
In the oracle boneinscription, the word "year" looks like a person bending over and
carrying a crop, which means a good harvest. Therefore, the end of each year was a day of thanksgiving for the harvest for the ancients.
The time of the New Yearhas different days in each era. In the Xia Dynasty, the Xia calendar was used, thus,
the lunar New Year is happened in the first month of the lunar calendar. Later, some dynasties changed to the 11th month of the lunar calendar and so on. Eventually, after the Sui Dynasty unified the country, it returned to the Xia
calendar, which is the time of the Lunar New Year we celebrate now. In fact, the formal celebration of the New Year, was formed during the Han Dynasty, and firecrackers (burning bamboo) began to appear. In the Wei and Jin dynasties, there was a consuetude of setting off firecrackers and keeping stay up until late for the New Year.
After reading the above twoNew Year's origins, which one do you think is more practical? In fact, we have
listened to the story of the Nian Beast since childhood. But the real Chinese New Year, in fact, according to the evolution of writing and the research of historians, is to celebrate the harvest, thank God and earth and pray for the
abundance of the coming year. Therefore, dear friends, in the future, during the Chinese New Year, we should also be thankful for what we have!