Chinese New Year Festival History
Chinese new year has enjoyed a history of about 3 500 years.
Chinese new year festival history. One legend is that thousands of years ago a monster named nian year would attack villagers at the beginning of each new year. The origin of the festival can be traced back to the worshiping activities in china s ancient agrarian society. Nónglì xīn nián zhōngguó xīn nián is the chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional chinese calendar the festival is commonly referred to as the spring festival traditional chinese.
The origins of this renaming from chinese new year to spring festival are fascinating and not widely known. The monster was afraid of loud noises bright lights and the colour red so those things were used to chase the beast away. Chinese new year history it is unclear when exactly the celebration of the new year began in china.
Chinese new year is celebrated in the far east and in chinatowns around the world on the first day of the first month of the chinese calendar which is usually the day of the second new moon after the winter solstice. The origins of the chinese new year are steeped in legend. The origins of the chinese new year festival are thousands of years old and are steeped in legends but it is unclear when the beginning of the year was celebrated before the qin dynasty.
Its exact beginning is not recorded. Chinese new year also called the lunar new year and the spring festival is the most important holiday in china and for chinese people around the world. In 1912 the newly formed chinese republic governed by the nationalist party renamed the traditional holiday spring festival to get the chinese people to transition into celebrating the western new year.
A small scale spring festival is said to have been celebrated as early as at the time of the legendary sage emperors yao and shun. Some believe that the practice began as early as the period of emperor yao and shun s 2300 bc reigns. Some people believe that chinese new year originated in the shang dynasty 1600 1046 bc when people held sacrificial ceremonies in honor of gods and ancestors at the beginning or the end of each year.
Its celebration is said to have originated from the year end religious ceremony observed during the shang dynasty 1766 bc 1122 bc. The date for the ceremony wasn t fixed till the han dynasty 202 bc 220 ad when emperor wudi commanded to use the lunar calendar. Chinese new year history chinese new year has a far reaching history of over 3 800 years.