東西方新年
New Year:
Chinese New Year (Simplified Chinese: 春節(jié), or 農(nóng)歷新年; Traditional Chinese: 春節(jié), or 農(nóng)歷新年; pinyin: Chūnjié, or Nónglì xīnnián), or the Spring Festival/Lunar New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. The Chinese New Year period lasts for 15 days, beginning on the first day of the first lunar month (正月 Zheng Yue) of the Chinese calendar. The holiday period ends with 元宵節(jié) （Yuan Xiao Jie), on the 15th day of the festival.
It is possible that the beginning of the year began with month 1 during the Xia Dynasty, month 12 during the Shang Dynasty, and month 11 during the Zhou Dynasty in China, but intercalary months were added after month 12 during both the Shang Dynasty according to surviving oracle bones and the Zhou Dynasty according to Sima Qian. The first Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang changed the beginning of the year to month 10 in 221 BC. Whether the New Year was celebrated at the beginning of these months or at the beginning of month 1 or both is unknown. In 104 BC, Emperor Wu established month 1 as the beginning of the year where it remains.
According to legend, in ancient China, nian ("Nyan"), a man-eating beast from the mountains, could infiltrate houses silently to prey on humans. The people later learned that nian was sensitive to loud noises and the color red, so they scared it away with explosions, fireworks and the liberal use of the color red. So guo nian actually means surviving the nian. These customs led to the first New Year celebrations.
Chuxi or 除夕 in Mandarin Chinese. Chu means "get rid of" and xi is the day of the legendary man-eating beast, nian, that preys once a year on New Year Eve. When nian arrived, people used firecrackers to scare him away. Once nian ran away, people joined together to celebrate for another year of safe life.
Celebrated internationally in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese. Chinese New Year is considered to be a major holiday for the Chinese as well as ethnic groups who were strongly influenced by Chinese culture. This includes Japanese, Koreans, Miao (Chinese Hmong), Mongolians, Vietnamese, Tibetans, the Nepalese and the Bhutanese (see Losar).
Chinese New Year is also the time when the largest human migration takes place when overseas Chinese all around the world return home on the eve of Chinese New Year to have reunion dinners with their families.