The Spring Festival generally refers to the New Year’s Eve and the first day of the first month. But in the folk, the traditional sense of the Spring Festival refers to the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month or the twelfth lunar month 23 or 24 sacrificial stove, until the fifteenth day of the first month, which with New Year’s Eve and the first day of the first month for the climax. During the Spring Festival, Chinese Han and many ethnic minorities hold various activities to celebrate. These activities are to worship gods and Buddhas, worship ancestors, remove the old and the new, welcome the jubilee and pray for a good harvest as the main content. The activities are rich and colorful, with strong ethnic characteristics.
The beginning of the Chinese lunar year is called the Spring Festival. It is the most solemn traditional festival of the Chinese people. It also symbolizes unity, prosperity and new hope for the future. According to records, the Chinese people celebrate the Spring Festival has a history of more than 4 thousand years, it was started by Yu Shun. One day in 2000 BC, Shun, the son of Heaven, led his subordinates to worship heaven and earth. Since then, people regard this day as the beginning of the New Year, as the first day of the first lunar month. It is said that this is the origin of the Lunar New Year, later called the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival used to be called Yuandan. The month in which the Spring Festival is held is called January.
However, the date of the Chinese New Year’s Day is not consistent: the Xia Dynasty with Meng spring of January for the first month, Shang Dynasty with December (December) for the first month, Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries after October for the first month, the early Han Dynasty in use of the Qin calendar. Han Wudi Liu Che felt calendar too messy, ordered minister Gongsun Qing and Sima Qian made “solar calendar”, provisions to the first lunar month for the first year, to the first day of the year, is New Year’s Day. Since then, China has been using the Xia calendar (lunar calendar, also known as the lunar calendar) until the Qing Dynasty, as long as 2080 years.