The Spring Festival, with a profound history, originated from the ritual worship activities at the end of the Shang dynasty. During this festival, the Han and other ethnic groups in China hold various celebrations, primarily to worship deities, honor ancestors, eliminate the old and usher in the new, and pray for a bountiful harvest. These activities are vibrant and full of national characteristics.
The Spring Festival is a time for family reunions, where children travel long distances to return to their parents' homes. The eve of the New Year, known as the Reunion Night, families gather to make dumplings together. The creation of dumplings symbolizes unity and togetherness, as the word "dumpling" is homophonic to "togetherness" and "sex," implying a desire for family closeness.
On September 27, 1949, the establishment of New China was approved at the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The Gregorian calendar, with January 1 as New Year's Day, was adopted, commonly referred to as the solar year. Typically, the first day of the first lunar month, which is earlier than the solar year, is celebrated as the Spring Festival, also known as the lunar new year.
Traditionally, the Spring Festival begins from the ritual of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god or the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month and continues until the fifteenth day.
The concept of the Spring Festival originated from agriculture. Ancient people referred to the growth cycle of crops as "year." The Xia and Shang dynasties established the lunar calendar, which divided a year into twelve months based on the moon's cycle. The first day of the lunar month, corresponding to the new moon, was considered the start of the year. This tradition was officially fixed during the Western Han dynasty and continues to this day.
Initially, the first day of the first lunar month was called "Yuan Dan," meaning the beginning of a new year. However, after the victory of the revolution, the Nanjing Provisional Government renamed it "Spring Festival" to align with agricultural practices and facilitate statistics. The Gregorian calendar was implemented in government agencies, factories, schools, and organizations, with January 1 as New Year's Day, and the first lunar month as the Spring Festival.
In China, the Spring Festival traditionally begins with the ritual of honoring the kitchen god. The folk saying "Twenty-three, sugar cakes stick" refers to the custom of offering sugar cakes to the kitchen god on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month. This practice varies among different social groups, with officials celebrating on the twenty-third day, commoners on the twenty-fourth, and those living on water on the twenty-fifth.
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