What is "year"?
According to the folk legend, "nian" is a unicorn with huge body, bad temper and unusual ferocity. At the end of every winter, it would go to the nearby villages to look for food and even hurt the villagers, bringing great disasters to the people.Later people found that it will be people thrown into the fire of the bamboo festival burst when the sound of scare, but "nian" and not dead, so every year on the twelfth lunar month 30, everyone did not sleep at night, keep the fire of the bamboo festival away from the monster, "New Year's eve" from this.
In different periods, the appellation of "nian" was different. Tang yu called it "zai", xia called it "sui", Yin called it "si", and zhou shi called it "nian".The present "year" begins with the week.
The oracle bone inscriptions and inscriptions of "nian" are the hieroglyphs of mature and drooping grain ears. The pictograph of "nian" is a bearing of mature grain ears, that is, "nian cheng" is the main ideograph.This is the exact definition of the Chinese character "nian" from the genetic study of characters."Zai" refers to the beginning of the end of all things, "sui" means the beginning of the year, and "si" means the end of the four seasons.
The saying "Spring Festival" appeared long ago in the history of our country.The biography of Yang zhen in the later han dynasty contains: "the Spring Festival did not rain, bailiao anxious, and repair more than, sincere drought zheng also".However, at that time, refers to the 24 solar terms in the "spring".In the northern and southern dynasties, "Spring Festival" generally refers to the whole spring.
The traditional Chinese calendar for the first day of the first month, now whether Chinese or overseas Chinese are unified as "Spring Festival", but in history is called "New Year's day".
