What day did the ancient people in China call "New Year's Day"?
The word New Year's Day has a history of more than 5,000 years in China. The year of Jingchu is called "the day of three yuan", "yuan" means the beginning, and "three yuan" means "the yuan of the year, the yuan of the time and the yuan of the month", that is, the beginning of a year, a season and January, so New Year's Day is often called "Yuan Day" in ancient times. It is also called "Three Dynasties" and "New Year's Day" because this day is still "Year Dynasty, Moon Dynasty and Japan Dynasty", and "Dynasty" is "sunrise", that is, "Dan".
In the pre-Qin period, January and New Year's Day were not unified because of the separation of political power in various places. Until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, January in the summer calendar was designated as the first month, and the first day of the first month was designated as New Year's Day. It was only then that New Year's Day was confirmed, which was used by later generations without major changes.
It was not until the Revolution of 1911 overthrew the Qing Dynasty and the founding of the Republic of China that the government of the Republic of China decided to use the Gregorian calendar and called 1 month 1 day of the Gregorian calendar "New Year's Day". Later, People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded. In order to better communicate with the world, we decided to adopt the Gregorian calendar, which is now our universal solar calendar. As a result, the previous "New Year's Day" became the Spring Festival, and the first day of January in the solar calendar took over New Year's Day.
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Related legends
In the heyday of ancient Yao and Shun more than 4,000 years ago, when Yao was in power, he worked diligently for the people and did many good things for the people, which was deeply loved by the people. However, due to his son's incompetence, he did not pass on the leader of the "tribal alliance" to his son, but passed it on to Shun, who has both ability and political integrity.
Yao said to Shun, "You must pass on the throne in the future, and you will be relieved when I die." Later, Shun passed the throne to Yu, who made great contributions to flood control. Yu also loves the people and has done many good things for the people like Shun, and is deeply loved by the people.
Later, after Yao's death, people took the day of offering sacrifices to Heaven and Earth and the first emperor Yao as the beginning of the year, and called the first day of the first lunar month "New Year's Day" or "Jacky". It is said that this is the origin of the ancient Chinese New Year.
Cultural practices
In ancient times, on "New Year's Day", the imperial court would organize solemn ceremonies to worship heaven and earth, and the king would receive greetings from all countries in the splendid palace and wish the country peace this year. The dawn sky, the majestic palace, the sergeant of Zhuang Su, the ladies-in-waiting as beautiful as flowers and pure as jade, all kinds of envoys and the momentum of a great country are all ready to meet this annual grand event.
Not only the court, but also the people have their own celebrations on this day. Besides setting off firecrackers, hanging red flowers and drinking Tu Su wine, there are many interesting activities. The Song Dynasty's Dream of Tokyo records the scene that Kaifeng released Guanju on the first day of the New Year's Day.
Closing shops was a popular gambling game in the Northern Song Dynasty. On the first day of New Year's Day, Kaifengfu made people indulge in fun, with traffic everywhere and crowds of people. Even the women in the boudoir have come out to entertain themselves. People also celebrate the beginning of the new year with this annual tourism and smelting event, hoping that they will have good luck in this year.
China News Network-Ancient New Year's Day, not today's New Year's Day.