In fact, staying up late to welcome the New Year is not sleeping on the last night of the year. Presumably, everyone spent the night playing mahjong and cards with a relative in the Spring Festival Evening. To explore the origin of this custom, there is a small story among the people:

According to legend, in ancient times, there was a monster called Nian, who came out to eat people after dark every year, and crows returned to the mountains after dawn, so the folks took Nian's raging night as a gateway and called it Nian Guan.

In order to spend this year safely, every night, the people will prepare the New Year's Eve dinner in advance, close the doors and windows, and hide in the house to have the "New Year's Eve dinner" with the whole family. Because this New Year's Eve dinner has ominous meaning, it is very rich, and we should sacrifice to our ancestors before dinner, pray for their blessing and spend the night safely. No one dares to sleep after dinner, so they huddle together to chat and be brave. Later, everyone found that Nian was most afraid of red, fire and explosion. So every year on New Year's Eve, every family sticks red couplets and sets off firecrackers. Every household lights a candle and stands guard until the early morning of the New Year's Day to greet relatives and friends. This custom has spread more and more widely, and has become the most solemn traditional festival among the people in China.

The custom of observing age rose in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and epidemics and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom has been handed down from generation to generation.

The Origin of the Spring Festival: Short Stories II

According to legend, there was a clever young man named Wannian in ancient times, who was troubled by chaotic festivals all the year round and had a plan to set things right. One day, when he was tired of cutting wood on the mountain, he was sitting in the shade to have a rest. He was inadvertently inspired by the shadow movement of the tree and designed a coffin that could measure the time of the day. Later, inspired by the dripping spring on the cliff, he made a five-story clepsydra to calculate the time. Over time, he discovered the laws of the four seasons.

As an ambitious young man, Wannian decided to share his worries for the country, so he took the sundial and the clepsydra to see Zu Ti, the king of Dan, and explained to him why the sun and the moon moved. Zu Ti was very happy after hearing this. He built the Sun and Moon Pavilion, the sundial platform and the Leaky Pot Pavilion in front of the Temple of Heaven. I hope to create a calendar in 10 thousand years to benefit the people of the world.

On one occasion, Zu Ti boarded the Sun Moon Altar and saw a poem engraved on the stone wall next to the Temple of Heaven:

Sunrise and sunset 360 degrees,

Start all over again.

Vegetation withers and flourishes in four seasons.

There are twelve circles in a year.

Wan Nian pointed to the astronomical phenomena and said to Zu Ti, "It's been twelve months now, the old year has passed and the new year has begun again. Please make a festival for you. " Zu Ti said, "Spring is the first year of a year, so let's call it Spring Festival". It is said that this is the origin of the Spring Festival. Later, in order to commemorate the achievements of 10 thousand years, the monarch named the solar calendar "perpetual calendar" and named it the birthday star of the sun, moon and moon. In the future, people will hang up the Shou Xingtu during the Chinese New Year, which is said to commemorate the venerable ten thousand years.

The origin of festivals

The origin of ancient traditional festivals is related to ancient primitive beliefs, sacrificial culture, astrology, calendar and other humanistic and natural cultural contents. According to the research results of modern anthropology and archaeology, the two most primitive beliefs of human beings are the belief in heaven and earth and the belief in ancestors. Most of the traditional festivals in ancient times were formed in the activities of the ancients choosing a day to offer sacrifices to thank the gods of heaven and earth, the grace of their ancestors and pray for evil spirits.

The early festival culture embodies the ancient people's humanistic spirit of advocating nature, the unity of man and nature, cautiously pursuing the future, and firmly thinking about the source; A series of sacrificial activities contain profound cultural connotations, such as respecting morality, ritual and music civilization, etc. The formation of New Year's Day covers humanistic philosophy and natural laws.

Refer to the above? Baidu Encyclopedia-Spring Festival