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Why is the first day of the new year called New Year's day? What does it mean

Now people think that new year's Day is January 1 of the new calendar, but there was new year's day in ancient times. At that time, the first day of the first month was called New Year's day. So why is the first day of the new year called New Year's day? What is the meaning of new year's day?

Why is the first day of the new year called New Year's day

Because 'Yuan' means the beginning, 'Dan' means that the sun has just come out of the peace line. New year's Day is also known as' new calendar year 'and' Gregorian calendar year '. At the same time, it is also called "three yuan", that is, the yuan of age, the yuan of month and the yuan of time.

The date of the Chinese New Year is different in different dynasties. The Xia Dynasty is set on the first day of January, the Shang Dynasty on the first day of December, the Zhou Dynasty on the first day of November, and the Qin Dynasty on the first day of October. In the first year of the Western Han Dynasty (104 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty accepted the suggestion of Sima Qian and others to use the Taichu calendar, restored the summer calendar, that is, the lunar calendar, took the first month as the beginning of the year, and set the 24 solar terms into the calendar. Later, although the calendars were modified in all dynasties, they were basically based on the Taichu calendar, with the first month of mengchun in the summer calendar as the beginning of the year, and the first day of the first month as new year's day and new year's day, that is, the first day of the new year.

After the 1911 Revolution, the rule of the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, and Sun Yat Sen established the government of the Republic of China in Nanjing. Representatives of provincial governors held a meeting in Nanjing to discuss the calendar. At the meeting, we reached the "line summer calendar", so it was along the lunar time; From the Western calendar, the consensus of "Statistics" decided to use the Gregorian calendar, customize the "new year" on January 1 of the Gregorian calendar, and call the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar the "Spring Festival", but it was not officially named and promoted. On September 27, 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference decided: "the year of the people's Republic of China adopts the year method", and confirmed the new year (New Year's day) as China's legal festival.

What does new year's day mean

In the eyes of ancient Chinese, 'Yuan' means the beginning "Dan" means morning. " New year's day means the 'initial day', that is, January 1 of the Gregorian calendar. It is commonly known as the 'New Year' in most countries in the world.

The words' Yuan 'and' Dan 'together mean the first morning of the new year. The name of new year's day began in ancient times and agricultural production. During the Yin and Shang Dynasties, in order to grasp the time and seasons and facilitate farming, the 'Astronomers' at that time knew how to count the time according to the activities of the moon. The moon was round and missing once, which was set as one month, the first day of the first day of the lunar month as the new moon, and the fifteenth day as the watch day; The moon is round and lacks twelve times, that is, twelve months, which is a year.

At that time, there was no saying of "year", but the first month of twelve months had been designated as the first month; The new moon is the beginning of the year. It was called 'New Year's Day', also known as' New Year's Day '. According to the notes in Er Ya: 'Xia Yue Sui, Shang Yue Si, Zhou Yue Nian.' Whether this explanation is accurate or not is worth studying, because before the Zhou Dynasty, in the change of dynasties, such things could not be separated so clearly.

However, it was a fact at that time to study festivals for agricultural production. For example, it is recorded in the book of History & middot; Yao Dian that in order to guide people's production, Yao chose four learned people, Xi Zhong, Xi Shu, He Zhong and he Shu, to study celestial phenomena and ground objects, and delimit the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, so that people can know when to cultivate or harvest. The chronicle of food and goods written by people in the Han Dynasty also records that Yao ordered four sons to respect and teach the people.