The Origin And Introduction of Chinese New Year

The first day of the Chinese lunar year is called the Spring Festival. It is the grandest traditional festival of the Chinese people and symbolizes unity, prosperity and new hopes for the future. According to records, the Chinese people have been celebrating the Spring Festival for more than 4,000 years, and it was initiated by Yu Shun. On a day more than 2,000 years B.C., Shun became the son of heaven and led his men to worship heaven and earth. Since then, this day has been regarded as the first day of the year and is considered the first day of the first month. This is said to be the origin of the Lunar New Year, which was later called the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival used to be called New Year's Day. The month of January in which the Spring Festival falls is called New Year's Day.

On September 27, 1949, the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) decided to adopt the world's common Gregorian calendar while establishing the People's Republic of China. In order to distinguish between the solar calendar and the lunar calendar two "years", but also because of the 24 solar terms of the year "spring" just before and after the lunar year, so the solar January 1 called "New Year's Day", the first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was officially renamed "Spring Festival".

New Year's Eve family dinner 1

New Year's Eve family dinner 2

New Year's Eve family dinner 3

China is a multi-ethnic country, and each ethnic group celebrates the New Year in a different way. The Han Chinese, Manchu and Koreans celebrate the Spring Festival in much the same way, with family reunions, eating rice cakes, dumplings and a variety of hearty meals, displaying lanterns and colorful decorations, setting off firecrackers, and wishing each other well. The celebrations during the Spring Festival are extremely rich and varied, including lion dances, dragon juggling, stilt walking, and running on dry boats. In some areas people follow the past ancestor worship God activities, praying for a new year of wind and rain, peace, harvest. Ancient Mongolia, the Spring Festival called "white festival", the first month called white month, is the meaning of good luck. The Tibetans celebrate the Tibetan New Year. The Hui, Uyghurs and Kazakhs celebrate the "Gulbang Festival". The Spring Festival is also a grand festival for the Miao, Boys and Yao.