The Spring Festival has a long history, which evolved from praying for the New Year at the beginning of the year in ancient times. Everything is based on heaven, and people are based on ancestors, praying for the elderly, respecting the ancestors of heaven, and returning to the original. The origin of the Spring Festival contains profound cultural connotations, and it carries rich historical and cultural connotations in its inheritance and development. During the Spring Festival, every household will hold various celebrations, most of which focus on offering sacrifices to gods and buddhas, ancestors, saying goodbye to the old year, welcoming the new year and praying for a bumper harvest.
The origins of the Spring Festival include: the Spring Festival originated in La Worship, witchcraft rituals, the Year of the Beast, the rise of worship to heaven in Yu Shun period, the word "harmony" and "lucky money" in ancient Chinese characters, and the regulations after Qin Shihuang unified the six countries. I think the Spring Festival has three most noteworthy origins. Let's take a look:
? One of the origins of the Spring Festival: the "Year" beast theory?
According to legend, in ancient China, there was a monster named Nian, with a long, pointed head and an unusually fierce appearance. Nian beast has lived under the sea for many years. Every New Year's Eve, it crawls ashore to devour livestock and kill people. Therefore, on New Year's Eve, people help the old and take care of the young and flee to the mountains to avoid the harm of Nian beast. It is said that Nian beast has a big head and a small body, and it is more than ten feet long. Its eyes are like two bells, coming and going like the wind. When it is called, it sounds "year after year", hence the name Nian Beast.
A fierce monster called Nian goes from one house to another every year1February 30th, foraging for human flesh and killing creatures. On the night of the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, Nian came to a village. It happened that two cowboys were fighting for a whip. Nian suddenly heard the sound of whipping in mid-air and ran away in fear. It fled to another village and saw a bright red dress drying in front of the door. It didn't know what it was, so it turned around and ran away. Later, he came to a village, looked into the door of a family, and saw that the lights were brightly lit and dizzy, so he had to slip away again, with his tail between his legs.
From this, people realized that Nian has the weakness of being afraid of noise, red and light, so they thought of many ways to resist it and gradually evolved into the custom of celebrating the New Year today.
Nian beast should have evolved from wild animals. Because from the time point of view, the "New Year" is the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and the snow closes the mountain and closes the road. Humans have learned to preserve food, resist the cold and concentrate on life, but wild animals can only risk going down the mountain to eat people. After human development, there are years, months and years, but the environment rarely changes, and wild animals still go down the mountain to eat people in late winter and early spring. With the passing from generation to generation and the processing of "literati" at that time, "Nian Beast" appeared.
? The second origin of the Spring Festival: The evolution of the word "He" originated from ancient calligraphy?
It is said that the word "Nian" was first seen in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Yin Ruins. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's glyph is "He", and below it is "Man". The whole looks like a person carrying the harvested grain, which means a bumper harvest, and "person" is also a sound. Oracle Bone Inscriptions often says "pray for the year" and "accept the year", which means to pray for a bumper harvest of crops.
Because in the Shang dynasty, crops were planted once a year and harvested only once a year, the "year" was also extended to the time unit, that is, 12 months. There are some sayings in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, such as "seven years" and "five years".
Shuo Wen Jie Zi was originally written. Gu Shuye. Thousands of voices from the grain. The opening of seal script makes the writing of "nian" in regular script, which directly affects the writing of "nian" in this grass. Many contemporary calligraphers only imitate the handwriting of the ancients and do not go deep into the source of cursive script.
In ancient China calligraphy, the word "Nian" was placed in the Grain Department, indicating that the weather was favorable and the crops were plentiful. Because cereal crops are usually harvested once a year. "Year" is extended to the name of the year. From the original meaning and extended meaning of the word "Nian", we can know that China has been an agricultural country based on agriculture since Shang Dynasty at the latest.
? The third legend of the Spring Festival: the saying of "lucky money"?
Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a little demon named Chong who came out to harm children on New Year's Eve. As long as he touches the sleeping child's forehead with his pale hand three times, the child will have a high fever and talk nonsense; After a few days, the high fever subsided, and the clever child became delirious and dull!
People are afraid that "worship" will hurt children, so on this day, lights will be turned on all night to protect children. Later, a family named Guan got old. In order to protect this hard-won child, they forced the child to play that night, wrapped eight copper coins in red paper, and the child unpacked and wrapped them until he went to bed. But the couple dare not sleep and accompany the children. The wind suddenly blew in the middle of the night, and the "rushing ears" came again. When it proudly prepared to touch the child's forehead with its hand, a light suddenly burst out of the pillow, and "Chong Sui" was scared out of her wits and fled in a hurry. Later, the couple told everyone about the "copper wallet and red paper", and every household used this method every year to prevent "special", and the children were never hurt again. It is said that these eight copper coins were exchanged by the Eight Immortals, which secretly protected the safety of children. The custom of "pressing" red envelopes has also spread to this day. Because "old" and "special" are homophonic, "special" naturally developed into "old".
The custom of giving lucky money has actually been circulating for a long time. At the earliest time, it was called "pressing money" "Precious" means unlucky, unlucky and unlucky. Children are always the hope and future of adults. Give them "precious money" and hope to "suppress evil and promote good." In the ancient Central Plains, lucky money was also called "lucky money" and "winning money", with the same meaning, but with different names.
The ancient "betting money" is a small copper coin copied from the outside to the inside. It is worn on the body to ward off evil spirits by putting a red ribbon through the money eye, tying a Chinese knot and tying a red tassel. Adults string colored silk threads through the holes of copper coins in the shape of dragons. When the child falls asleep, put the "lucky money" at the foot of the child's bed or beside the child's pillow. It is said that all sneaky and evil things come out at night, and the "lucky money" can suppress nightmares and last for a year in the town.
After the development of Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Song and Yuan Dynasties, Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China, the "lucky money" gradually became this kind of paper money, and the new numbered paper money became the lucky money, which contained the good hope of the elderly for the younger generation to have "good luck and happy events". This custom has continued to this day.