What is the origin of New Year’s Day? Why is it called New Year’s Day? What are the legends?

What is the origin of New Year’s Day? Why is it called New Year’s Day? What are the legends?

According to legend, Chinese New Year’s Day originated from Zhuan Xu, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, more than 3,000 years ago. The word “New Year’s Day” first appeared in “Book of Jin”: “Emperor Zhuan took the third month of Mengchun as the Yuan Dynasty, which was the spring of New Year’s Day.” “Yuan” means the beginning, “Dan” refers to the dawn, and New Year’s Day is also called “three yuan”, which is the yuan of the year, the yuan of the month, and the yuan of the time.

As we all know, what we call New Year’s Day is the first day of the first month of the Gregorian calendar. However, when it comes to the origin of New Year’s Day, it has a long history.

China’s New Year’s Day is said to have originated from Zhuan Xu, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and has a history of more than 5,000 years. The word “New Year’s Day” first appeared in “Book of Jin”: “Emperor Zhuan took the first month of Mengxia as the Yuan Dynasty, which actually means the spring of New Year’s Day.”

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the poem “Jie Ya” written by Xiao Ziyun, a literary historian of the Southern Dynasties, recorded that “the four seasons have a new New Year’s Day, and the Wanshou Early Spring Dynasty”. Wu Zimu’s “Mengliang Lu” of the Song Dynasty said: “The first day of the first lunar month is called New Year’s Day, and it is commonly known as New Year. This is the first of the year-old festivals.”

It is called “Yuan Zheng” in Cui Yuan’s “Sanzi Chai Ming” in the Han Dynasty; it is called “Yuan Chen” in a fu in “Yang Du Fu” by Yu Chan in the Jin Dynasty; It is called “Yuan Chun” in the middle; it is called “Yuan Shuo” in the poem “Retired from the DPRK to Watch the Military Battle and Return to Camp” by Tang Dezong and Li Shi of the Tang Dynasty.

Chinese New Year’s Day has always referred to the first day of the first lunar month of the Xia calendar (lunar calendar, lunar calendar). The date on which the first day of the first lunar month was calculated was also very inconsistent before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, the month and day of New Year’s Day in the past dynasties are not consistent. The Xia Dynasty’s lunar calendar used Meng Xi month (Yuan month) as the first month, the Shang dynasty’s Yin calendar used the twelfth month (December) as the first month, and the Zhou dynasty’s Zhou calendar used the winter month (November) as the first month. After Qin Shihuang unified China, he took Yangchun month (October) as the first month, that is, the first day of October as New Year’s Day.

Starting from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Meng Xiyue (January) was designated as the first month, and the first day of Meng Xiyue (the first day of the first lunar month in the lunar calendar) was called New Year’s Day, which was still used until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

In 1911 AD, the Revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yat-sen overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. Representatives of governors from various provinces met in Nanjing and decided to use the Gregorian calendar, calling January 1st of the lunar calendar “Spring Festival” and January 1st of the Gregorian calendar “New Year’s Day”, but there was no official announcement or naming at that time.

In order to “make Xia Zhengzheng, follow the agricultural time, and follow the Western calendar, so statistics are convenient”, the first year of the Republic of China decided to use the Gregorian calendar (actually used in 1912), and stipulated that January 1 of the Gregorian calendar is the “New Year”, but it is not called “New Year’s Day” “.

On September 27, 1949, the first Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, while deciding to establish the People’s Republic of China, also decided to adopt the world’s common AD calendar, which is what we call the Gregorian calendar. New Year’s Day refers to the first day of the year in the AD to distinguish the two new years of the lunar calendar and the solar calendar. Since the “beginning of spring” in the 24 solar terms of the lunar calendar happens to be before and after the lunar new year, January 1st of the lunar calendar was renamed “New Year’s Day”. “Spring Festival”, January 1 of the Gregorian calendar is designated as the beginning of the new year – “New Year’s Day”, and is listed as a legal holiday and becomes a festival for people across the country.