Hello everyone! Welcome to Dr. Yang's life tips channel. This is Doctor Yang.
Today is the Chinese Lunar New Year in 2021. First of all, I am here to say to all my friends and family:
Happy New Year! I wish you success in the new year, peace and safety, family happiness, happiness and health!
Speaking of New Year's greetings, it is actually an ancient tradition in our Chinese culture.
Usually, people with lower seniority pay the New Year greetings to those with higher seniority. There are also New Year greetings between relatives, friends and colleagues.
The first to the fourteenth day of the new year is considered the New Year period, and New Year greetings are all possible. You may start New Year's greetings since 30.
Everyone must remember that we cannot pay New Year's greetings in the third day according to our traditional Chinese culture. Because the third day is called Chikou, it is unlucky to pay a New Year's greetings.
It is usually new year eve in mainland China, and the young children go to the man’s parents to reunite. They are in the man's parents' house in the New Year's day.
In the second day of the New Year, we have a custom in China to call the door back. The couple took the children to the woman's parents' house to pay a New Year greeting.
One day off on the third day. Visiting relatives and friends on the fourth day. The fifth day called 'breaks five' and stay at own home.
In fact, the period until the fifteenth of the first lunar month is considered to be the New Year. Therefore, it was normal for New Year greetings before 14th days.
But in Chinese custom, you can’t go without gifts when you call on the New Year. You have to bring gifts with you.
In ancient times, there were three kinds of gifts in rural areas: a piece of meat, some vermicelli, and a packet of dim sum. This is a very traditional gift-giving model.
Of course, present social gift giving is different. In the city, you may give 2 bottles of wine and 2 cigarettes, depending on the other party’s preferences.
You can also give away some food. The things you bring don’t have to be very expensive, they are meant to show your regards and respects.
During New Year's greetings, children can kneel down for New Year's greetings to the elderly. If you kneel down, the old man/woman will give the children red envelopes (with cashes).
The children got red envelopes and were very happy. This is also a custom of our Chinese nation.
Speaking of the Chinese New Year, it is the lunar year. I must talk about the history of the Spring Festival.
The Spring Festival is in the culture of the Chinese nation, whether in the mainland, East Asian or Southeast Asian countries, or some overseas Chinese.
Will be called differently. Some people call the Spring Festival the New Year, Zhengdan, and the New Year of the First Moon.
Orally, we often call the New Year, the Great Year, the New Age, and so on. In addition, celebrate the new year and celebrate the new age.
In fact, the festival is the Chinese New Year calculated by the traditional calendar. It is the first day of the year in this year.
This day is the first day of the first month. We officially start the New Year on the first day of the first month.
In fact, it is a traditional New Year festival celebrated by Chinese communities and societies all over the world in China and Chinese areas.
The Spring Festival is the first of the four traditional festivals of the Han nationality. There are four most famous traditional festivals of Chinese culture in China.
The first is the Spring Festival, which is the first of the four major festivals. In addition, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and August 15 in autumn.
Since the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese New Year of the Chinese nation started from the first day of the new year and did not officially end until 15th.
There are also places where the New Year is longer. Even the whole first month is called New Year. After 15th, there will be celebrations and social activities.
In fact, the traditional Chinese New Year is exactly the same as South Korea, Vietnam, and the New Year before the Meiji Restoration in Japan.
The Chinese New Year we are talking about now uses the lunar calendar, not the AD. Chinese communities in many countries in Southeast Asia usually use the lunar and solar calendars.
It is said that both the lunar calendar and the yin-yang calendar were created during the Huangdi and Xia dynasties. Everyone talks about the lunar calendar, also known as the yellow calendar and the old yellow calendar.
It is called the Xia calendar in literature, which is the combined yin and yang calendar created by the Xia Dynasty. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Gree calendar in the West was called the Gregorian calendar.
The traditional Xia calendar is called the lunar calendar (Yin calendar). Maybe you don’t know the origin of the Spring Festival. When did the term Spring Festival come from?
Spring Festival activities have existed since ancient times. The first day of the first month of the Xia calendar is called the beginning of the year, the New Year, and the New Year's Day. It is also called the New Year's Day of the lunar calendar.
Now in the mainland, we call the 1st of January as 'Yuan Dan'. There is actually some confusion. The Chinese New Year's Day is the first day of the first lunar month.
It is not the same as the New Year's Day we are talking about now. The Spring Festival is the beginning of spring in our twenty-four solar terms.
The origin of the name of the Spring Festival: January 1914, when the interim president of the Republic of China Yuan Shikai called the New Year's Day of the Chinese Xia calendar the Spring Festival.
Since then, the term Spring Festival has spread in mainland China, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Chinese communities in other countries.
The Spring Festival is the new year of our lunar, Xia or Yin calendar. Just now I mentioned the difference between calendar, lunar calendar, lunar and solar calendar.
Legislation is actually a coordinate system that records time. In fact, in different countries, we all have different calendars.
The general principle is to have the concept of year and month. Yang means that the earth revolves around the sun, and one revolution is one year, forming a four-season cycle.
The moon we call is the moon revolving around the earth. The moon revolves around the earth for one month, which is the cycle of lunar phases.
A year is about 10.875 days longer than 12 months. Neither the solar calendar nor the lunar calendar can completely satisfy the exact cycle of the year and month.
You may have heard the legend of "New Year". In the ancient times, there was a very ferocious monster called Xi.
This monster will come to the world on the last day of the twelfth lunar month every year, walking around Kawado and eating people.
Because he comes once a year, we commonly call it "Nian Beast". Later, our ancestors tried to avoid this'nian beast'.
New Year’s Eve, which is the evening of the 30th of the twelfth lunar month. Everyone gathers together. In this way, the crowd can scare the Nian Beast away or get rid of him.
Therefore, on our New Year’s Eve, the family sat together to reunite. We also called "New Year's Eve", which means to get rid of the beast of "Xi".
Later, our ancestors discovered that this monster Xi had something he was afraid of. What is he afraid of?
Afraid of red things, noisy sounds, and fire. The gradual continuation has formed the traditional culture of our Chinese nation.
On the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, the couplets were written on red paper and pasted on both sides and above the door. There was a red color, and the monster was more scared.
In addition, a bonfire was lit at the door on the New Year eve. In this way, wild beasts dare not enter your house.
Also, we will set off firecrackers on the night of the New Year Eve and the morning of the first day of the new year. The crackling sound will scare the monster'Xi' away.
Historically speaking, from the Wei and Jin dynasties we have this custom of setting off firecrackers and keeping the year old at thirty nights.
Now in mainland China, in many areas with a large number of Chinese, the government will give everyone a spring break during the Spring Festival.
Of course, overseas Chinese are not so honored. We have to ask for leave to be able to reunite with our family.
Actually this spring break is not new. There was spring break long ago in ancient times.
Spring break first began in the Tang Dynasty. This spring break was already there during the Tang Dynasty.
At that time, during the Spring Festival, they would give everyone a 7-day holiday. Teachers or students in private schools can take one month off.
In the period of Tang Dezong and Li Shi, the officials of the court also had vacations. The country cannot be completely shut down and closed for business.
He stipulated at that time that state officials should be divided into odd or even days. He carried out reforms at that time.
Go to work on a odd days and take a vacation on even days. No need to go to work every day, but national government agencies can still operate normally.
In addition, ordinary people, especially farmers in ancient times. They do not have a fixed holiday.
So at the end of the year, only when the Spring Festival comes, they will have a holiday.
In addition, the winter farming work is relatively idle, entering the Spring Festival this period, come to the family reunion day. Everyone has a good rest.
I just mentioned to you that we Chinese have the custom of sticking couplets and spring couplets during the New Year.
The custom of pasting spring couplets can be traced back to Hou Shu in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. At that time there were couplets.
The earliest Spring Festival couplets: the fist sentence is 'New Year's Day for Yuqing', and the second sentence is 'Changchun Festival'.
Different regions have different names for Spring Festival couplets. Some Spring Festival couplets are called Futie, Cantonese is called Huichun, and Hokkien is called Chunzi.
Usually, people write the auspicious words for the New Year with a brush on paper, and then paste the couplets on both sides of the door or above the door.
Later, stick the couplet of the square to the center of the door. The general purpose, the couplet is to pray for the New Year, and also has the effect of warding off evil spirits.
The monster of'Xi' is afraid of seeing red things, so we use red paper to write couplets, which will ward off evil spirits.
The history of Spring Festival couplets is also very long. Through the evolution and development of dynasties, many categories have been formed.
One kind of "doufang" is also called "doujin". Use a square piece of paper and put it upright diagonally. Write a word or a few words in the middle.
Such as 'Spring' and 'Happness'. Some people wrote "Auspicious Ruyi" and so on. In addition, there are ligature fights.
Although Doufang's paper is square, you can write several words in the middle. 'Auspicious','Look for wealth and treasure'.
Because some homes have double doors instead of single doors. In this way, you cannot post this "doufang".
What to post? We call the door heart, which means sticking a piece on a door. This is called door heart. Write a "welcoming spring", a "good luck" and so on.
There is another kind called spring stick. You can write'Congratulations to the New Year'. This single banner spring couplet is not a set.
You can write some auspicious words, either on the door or on the wall.
What we most often call is a frame pair, which is a pair of pairs. This is why we call the Spring Festival couplets the "couplet".
Spring couplets are usually pasted on the pillars on the left and right sides of the gate or on the wall of the wall.
Sub-up and down. The upper line is attached to the right side of the door, and the lower line is attached to the left side of the door. Don't post it upside down.
There are also those posted on the door frame, usually called banners or Hengcai or horizontal bars.
What everyone is more familiar with is the horizontal batch. It is pasted on the top of the door frame, a bit like that horizontal bar.
You can write some auspicious words:'going in and out of peace','good luck', etc. Just above the door, it is better to have a good luck.
In fact, when the Spring Festival couplets first appeared, they were written on white paper. So some things in the legend are not exactly the same.
The earliest mainland China was also written on white paper. Later, the custom of Spring Festival couplets spread to foreign countries, especially South Korea.
After the country changed to red, South Korea has not changed it. Now if you go to Korea during the Spring Festival, some of them still write couplets on white paper.
When did China start using red paper? In fact, red paper was only used after the Ming Dynasty. Before the Ming Dynasty, couplets were written on white paper.
In recent years, in Greater China, some people have also used golden paper to write couplets.
Traditionally, red paper, black ink or gold ink is used to write couplets. Now use golden paper and black ink.
Due to time constraints, I will list some common sentences about Spring Festival couplets. They are all auspicious words.
For example: Guotai People's peace, peace of mind, congratulations on the new year, peace in the four seasons, longevity and prosperity, longevity and wealth, surplus every year, wealth, wealth
and treasure, dragon horse spirit, renewal of Vientiane, safe entry and exit,
joy at the door, full garden Spring is bright, business is booming, smooth sailing, bumper crops, good weather and so on.
On the right is:'The days increase the years and the life increases, the spring is full of the universe and the blessing is full.' There is also:'Firecrackers get rid of the old with a sound, and the peach symbols are renewed'.
Talk to everyone here today. Finally, I wish you a Happy New Year and all the best!
2020 is a very extraordinary year for everyone.
I hope that in 2021, we will enjoy peace, prosperity, and happiness for all of us.
Old people live long and healthy, friends have a prosperous career, and children learn to progress!