What is New Year's Day?
New Year's Day is the beginning of the new year, that is, January 1st of the Gregorian calendar, which is the first day of the new year for most countries. The character "Yuan" in "New Year's Day" means the beginning; the character "Dan" means the first day. New Year's Day is also called "Three Yuan", meaning the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month, and the beginning of the time. However, due to differences in national culture, geographical environment, and calendars, the dates of New Year's Day vary among different countries. However, most countries celebrate New Year's Day on January 1st.
What is the origin of New Year's Day?
According to legend, during the reign of Yao and Shun over 4,000 years ago, Emperor Yao was diligent in serving the people and did many good deeds for the common people, which made him very popular among the people. However, his son was not talented and lacked ability, so he did not pass the throne to his son but to Shun, who had both moral integrity and ability.
Afterwards, Yao said to Shun: "You must take good care of the throne after me, and I can rest in peace after my death." Later, Shun passed the throne to Yu, who had successfully controlled the floods. Like Shun, Yu was kind to the people and did many good deeds for them, which made him very popular. After Yao's death, people regarded the day when Shun offered sacrifices to heaven and earth and honored Emperor Yao as the start of the year, and called the first day of the first lunar month "Xin Nian" or "Yuanzheng". This was the ancient New Year's Day.In subsequent dynasties, there were grand activities on New Year's Day, such as sacrificing to ancestors, pasting Spring Festival couplets, writing "Fu" characters, and dancing dragon lanterns. Later, these customs became popular among the people, and the practices of setting off firecrackers, staying up late, and having a family reunion dinner also emerged. The Jin Dynasty poet Xin Lan once wrote the poem "Yuanzheng": "Yuanzheng initiates the season, joy begins here. All offer a toast for a thousand years, great and small share in the happiness." It records the festive atmosphere of New Year's Day.
Later, during the Republic of China period, although January 1st was set as the New Year, most people did not recognize it, only government agencies, schools, and foreign businesses celebrated it for one day. People still took the first day of the first lunar month as the New Year. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, January 1st was officially set as New Year's Day. In the excavation of the Dawenkou cultural relics, an image was found showing the sun rising from the mountain peak, with clouds and mist in the middle. After verification, this was the oldest way of writing the character "Dan" in China. Later, in the bronze inscriptions of the Yin Dynasty, a simplified "Dan" pictographic character appeared. The character "Dan" represents the sun. The horizontal line below the "Ri" character indicates the horizon, meaning the sun rises slowly from the horizon.
