One of the legends of Spring Festival
The custom of staying up late to welcome the coming of the new year is to stay up late on the last night of the old year without sleeping. It is also called "staying up late on New Year's Eve". Exploring the origin of this custom, there is an interesting story in the Folk:
In ancient times, there was a kind of ferocious monster, scattered in the mountains and forests. People called them 'Nian'. Its appearance is ferocious, fierce and cruel, and it is devoted to birds and animals, scales and insects. One day, it changes to a taste, and from the click of a bug to the big living person, it makes people talk about the * Change of year. Later, people gradually mastered the activity law of 'year'. It was to rush to the crowded place every 365 days to have a taste of fresh food, and the time of appearance was after dark. When the crowing of chickens broke at dawn, they returned to the mountain forest.
After calculating the date of the 'New Year' rampage, the common people regarded the terrible night as the pass, which was called the 'New Year's pass', and came up with a whole set of ways to pass the new year's pass: every night when they arrived at the pass, every family prepared dinner in advance, put out the fire and cleaned the stove, then tied all the chicken pens and Cowpens, sealed the front and back doors of the house, and hid in the house to eat' New Year's Eve dinner '. Because this dinner was auspicious and auspicious It's uncertain, so it's very prosperous. In addition to the fact that the whole family should eat together to express harmony and reunion, we should offer sacrifices to ancestors before eating, pray for their gods' blessing, and spend the night safely. After eating, no one dares to sleep and sit together to chat. Gradually formed a new year's Eve boil the habit of keeping the year.
The custom of keeping the age rose in the southern and Northern Dynasties, and many scholars in the Liang Dynasty had poems about keeping the age. 'two years in a row, two years at five o'clock. 'people light candles or oil lamps and stay up all night, symbolizing to drive away all the evil plague and look forward to the good luck of the new year. This custom has been handed down to this day.
The second legend of Spring Festival: the calendar theory of ten thousand years
According to legend, in ancient times, there was a young man named Wan Nian. When he saw that the festivals were very disorderly, he had a plan to set them. But he couldn't find a way to calculate the time. One day, he was tired of cutting firewood on the mountain and sat under the shade of the tree to rest. The movement of the shadow inspired him. He designed a sundial to measure the time of the day. Later, the drop spring on the cliff inspired him. He made a five layer leaky pot to calculate the time. For a long time, he found that every three hundred and sixty days, the four seasons are reincarnated, and the length of days is repeated.
The monarch at that time was called Zuyi, and he was often troubled by the unpredictable weather. Ten thousand years later, he took the sundial and the leaky kettle to see the emperor and explained to zub the principle of the sun and the moon. After listening to Zuyi, Longyan is very happy and feels reasonable. So he left ten thousand years behind, built the sun and moon Pavilion in front of the temple of heaven, built the sundial platform and the leaky pot Pavilion. And hope to be able to measure the law of the sun and the moon, calculate the accurate morning and evening time, create a calendar, and benefit the people in the world.
Once, Zuyi went to learn about the progress of the ten thousand year test calendar. When he ascended the sun moon altar, he saw a poem engraved on the stone wall beside it:
The sun rises and sets three hundred and sixty, and the cycle begins again and again.
There are four seasons of withered vegetation and twelve circles in one year.
Knowing that the calendar has been established in ten thousand years, I went to the sun moon pavilion to visit ten thousand years. Wan Nian pointed to the sky and said to Zu B: 'now it's exactly 12 months, the old year is over, and the new spring is coming back. Pray for the king to set a festival'. Zub said: 'spring is the beginning of the year, it's called the Spring Festival'. It is said that this is the origin of the Spring Festival. From winter to spring, year after year, ten thousand years of long-term observation and careful calculation, an accurate solar calendar was made. When he presented the solar calendar to his successor, it was covered with silver whiskers. The monarch was deeply moved. In order to commemorate the achievements of ten thousand years, he named the solar calendar "perpetual calendar" and named ten thousand years as the sun, moon and birthday star. Later, people put up a picture of longevity during the Spring Festival, which is said to commemorate the venerable ten thousand years.
Spring Festival legend 3: stick couplets and door gods
It is said that the custom of affixing spring couplets began about 1000 years ago in the post Shu period, which is evidenced by history. In addition, according to works such as jade candle Scripture and Yanjing chronicle of the year, the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Taofu".
In ancient Chinese mythology, it is said that there is a world of ghost Kingdom, including a mountain, on which there is a big peach tree covering three thousand miles, and there is a golden chicken on the top of the tree. When the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghosts wandering out at night will rush back to the ghost kingdom. The gate of ghost kingdom is located in the northeast of peach tree. There are two gods standing by the gate, named Shentu and Yulei. If the ghost does something harmful at night, Shentu and Yulei will immediately find it and catch it, tie it up with a rope made of awn reed, and send it to feed the tiger. Therefore, all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shentu and Yulei. So the people carved them with mahogany and put them at their door to avoid evil and prevent harm. Later, people simply engraved the names of Shentu and Yulei on the mahogany board, believing that doing so can also suppress evil spirits and eliminate evil. This kind of peach board was later called "peach Rune".
In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on the mahogany board, one is not missing the significance of mahogany to control evils, the other is to express their good wishes, and the third is to decorate the door to make it beautiful. In addition, couplets are written on red paper, which symbolizes happiness and auspiciousness. They are pasted on both sides of doors and windows at the time of Spring Festival to express people's good wishes for blessing in the coming year.
In order to pray for the family's longevity, people in some places still keep the habit of sticking door gods. It is said that two door gods are pasted on the gate, and all the demons and ghosts will be frightened. In the folk, the door god is the symbol of righteousness and force. The ancients believed that people with strange looks often have magical nature and extraordinary ability. They are honest and kind-hearted. It's their nature and responsibility to catch ghosts and capture them. Zhong Kui, the Celestial Master who catches ghosts, is such a strange appearance. Therefore, the folk door gods are always angry and ferocious, with all kinds of traditional weapons in their hands, ready to fight against the ghosts who dare to come. Because the door of our country's folk house is usually two opposite, so the door gods are always in pairs.
After the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the two generals of Shenpu and Yulei, Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong were regarded as the door gods. According to legend, Emperor Taizong was ill. When he heard the call of ghosts outside, he was restless all night. So he asked the two generals to stand by the door with weapons and guard them. The next night, there was no more haunting. Later, Emperor Taizong asked people to draw the images of the two generals and paste them on the door. This custom began to spread widely among the people.