Spring Festival

Chinese national intangible cultural heritage: Spring Festival

Applicant: Ministry of culture

Project No.: 449

Project No.: Ⅹ - 1

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Zhongzhi unit

Type: new item

Applicant: Ministry of culture

Protection unit: Ministry of culture and Tourism

About the Spring Festival:

Applicant: Ministry of culture

Spring Festival is a traditional Chinese folk festival. New year refers to the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, which is the most solemn festival of the year. Han, Zhuang, Buyi, Dong, Korean, Gelao, Yao, she, Jing, Daur and other nationalities all celebrate this festival.

The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated from the sacrificial activities at the end of the year in the Shang Dynasty. There are many legends about it, among which the most representative are the legend of "Nian" beast, the legend of aonian and the theory of Wannian founding calendar. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty switched to the lunar calendar, the first day of spring in the 24 solar terms has been regarded as the Spring Festival and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar as the new year. The first day of spring is to offer sacrifices to heaven, to the God of agriculture, to the God of spring, to whip spring cattle, and to pray for a good harvest. In historical records and Hanshu, the first day of the first lunar month is called "four seasons" (the beginning of the year, the beginning of the time, the beginning of the day, and the beginning of the month) and "Three Dynasties" (the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month, and the beginning of the day). At this time, the ancients often held a pilgrimage, carried out various recreational activities, welcomed the gods and ancestors, divined the climate, prayed for a bumper harvest, and then gradually formed a rich New Year Festival.

After the revolution of 1911, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was changed to Spring Festival, and the beginning of spring gradually faded.

The Spring Festival is also called the lunar (lunar) year, commonly known as "Chinese New Year", and related folk activities last for one month. Before the first day of the first lunar month, there are rituals such as offering sacrifices to the kitchen and ancestors; during the festival, there are customs such as giving children new year's money and paying New Year's greetings to relatives and friends; half a month after the festival, there is the Lantern Festival, when the city is full of lanterns and the streets are full of tourists. After the Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival is over.

Spring Festival is a comprehensive folk culture, including worship, ceremony, festival decoration, diet and related entertainment activities. The main activities during the Spring Festival include: eating Laba porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month; offering sacrifices to the kitchen on the 23rd, eating sugar and sugar porridge; making dumplings, dumplings, making New Year cakes and having reunion dinner on New Year's Eve; pasting Spring Festival couplets, New Year pictures, paper cutting and setting off firecrackers; greeting gods and new year's greetings on the first day of the first lunar month; opening small markets on the fifth day of the first lunar month; opening big markets, welcoming God of wealth, eating Yuanxiao and traveling on the 15th Lantern Festival Lantern Festival, riddle guessing, etc. Setting off firecrackers is a folk activity during the Spring Festival.

Spring Festival is an important platform for harmonious family and interpersonal relationship. Its content is rich and colorful and has important historical, artistic and cultural value. Having a good Spring Festival is one of the important ways to enhance family relationship, enhance social cohesion and build a harmonious society, which also plays a positive role in promoting the development of cultural industry.

Because of the different environment in urban and rural areas, the way of celebrating the Spring Festival is also different. At present, the majority of rural areas still celebrate the Spring Festival in the traditional way, but the content of worship and ceremony is weakened, and the wind of giving gifts and inviting guests to dinner is growing; compared with rural areas, the form of urban Spring Festival is more simple.