(Essential questions) Why do Chinese leaders deliver New Year's greetings on New Year's Day instead of Spring Festival?

  China News Service, Beijing, December 31st, title: Why do Chinese leaders deliver New Year messages on New Year's Day instead of Spring Festival?

  China News Agency reporter Ma Haiyan

  Opening words: 2021 is coming, mankind is facing the new crown epidemic of the century, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered a new stage, and the great changes unseen in a century have accelerated.

At this time, the world is still facing uneven development and many problems, risks and even crises. Globalization and anti-globalization, multi-polarization and unipolarization are in fierce confrontation, and regional conflicts still occur from time to time.

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Does civilization necessarily lead to conflict?

……Faced with people’s many questions, our agency will launch the "Question of East and West" feature column immediately. It will rely on think tank scholars, international figures, elites from all walks of life and interviewing forces to continue to provide in-depth answers and build a bridge for the dialogue between Eastern and Western civilizations. Please pay attention!

  On the occasion of New Year's Day in 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a New Year message to China and the world.

Like many countries in the world, Chinese leaders’ speeches on the arrival of New Year’s Day have become a window for cohesiveness internally and showing the country’s image to the outside world.

  "Happy New Year!" Chinese people exchange greetings on this day, ring the bell, count down, and celebrate the new year with people all over the world.

"New Year's Day", an ancient vocabulary derived from China's meaning "one yuan, the beginning and the renewal of all things", has resonated with the world as "the world is as cool and hot as the world" after the changes of the times.

  The adoption of the internationally accepted AD era is a footnote that modern China began to "open eyes to see the world" and gradually integrated into the world with an open mind for more than 100 years.

The word "New Year's Day" was ancient as "Spring Festival"

  The term "New Year's Day" in China is believed to have originated in the period of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors thousands of years ago.

There is a record about "New Year's Day" in "Book of Jin": "Zhuan Xu regards the current first month of Mengchun as his Yuan, and the first month of the first month is the beginning of spring."

  Peng Lin, a senior professor of liberal arts at Tsinghua University, told China News Agency that "Yuan" means number one, "Dan" means the sun rises on the horizon, and "New Year's Day" is "the first morning of the year."

In the Southern Dynasty Xiao Ziyun's poem "Jie Ya", there is "Four Seasons New Year's Day, Longevity and Early Spring", "New Year's Day" has the meaning of "beginning".

  In ancient times, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was "New Year's Day".

"New Year's Day" is also known as "three yuan", that is, the yuan of the year, the yuan of the month, and the yuan of the time.

In the Southern Song Dynasty Wu Zimu's "Menglianglu", there is also a record of "New Year's Day on the first moon, called the New Year's Day, commonly called the New Year. The first year of the festival, this is the first".

  Before the Republic of China, China's New Year's Day actually refers to the New Year, which is the most important traditional festival for Chinese people.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi's poem "Yuan Ri" "The sound of firecrackers will be eliminated at one year old, and the spring breeze will bring warmth to Tusu. Thousands of families will always exchange new peaches for old symbols", which is the most widely spread in the Chinese world to write New Year's Day Poems, people usually think of the Spring Festival when they mention it.

  "New Year's Day" celebration has twists and turns

  The Chinese regard "New Year's Day" as the new year since the Republic of China.

Peng Lin said that at that time, there were suggestions for Confucius and Huangdi, but they finally determined the Western Chronicle, which is the AD.

  In the early years of the Republic of China, the government at that time revised the calendar and wanted to use the entire Gregorian calendar as a time system and move all traditional festivals to Gregorian time. So January 1 of the Gregorian calendar was named "New Year's Day", and the traditional New Year's Day was renamed "Spring Festival". .

  But the people at that time did not accept it. Agricultural production was affected. The forced celebration of the Gregorian New Year and the prohibition of the Lunar New Year were boycotted. In the end, the government could only promote the Gregorian calendar in institutions and schools.

In addition, during the Republic of China, like the previous dynasties, there was a period of the Republic of China in addition to the AD era. For example, 1912 was the first year of the Republic of China. In fact, it was still used for many years. Therefore, January 1 of the Gregorian calendar is an exotic "New Year's Day". "It has never become an official holiday.

  New China's calendar continues to adopt the AD era that most countries in the world have used, and it was determined by the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in September 1949.

At that time, the second of the four resolutions passed at the meeting made it clear that "The People's Republic of China adopts AD."

  "However, the New China did not supplement the year of the AD with other methods of chronology. This is for the future implementation of Gregorian calendar festivals such as Women’s Day on March 8th, Labor Day on May 1st, Children’s Day on June 1st, the birthday of the July 1st Party, and the founding of the army on August 1st. Festivals such as the National Day and the National Day of the Eleventh have laid the foundation, and also show the determination of the new republic to connect with the world." said Xiao Fang, director of the Department of Anthropology and Folklore at Beijing Normal University.

  In 1949, Mao Zedong also issued a New Year's speech entitled "Follow the Revolution".

Over the past 70 years, for the entire country, every New Year's Day has the meaning of reviewing, summarizing and looking forward to the future.

With the development of communication technology, the form of the leaders’ New Year’s greetings has gradually changed from text to sound to video, and its content also reflects the changes of the times. It has become a window for the world to observe China and a symbol of China’s integration into the world.

  "New Year's Day" Combination of Chinese and Western

  "In fact, New Year's Day cannot be regarded as a festival in the strict sense in both the East and the West, because there is no folklore and culture." said Chen Lianshan, a professor in the Department of Chinese at Peking University. It is precisely because there is no folklore tradition and additional cultural connotations that the East and the West accept it instead. easy.

Everyone now recognizes that the AD is a universal time system and tool for conducting political, economic, and diplomatic exchanges on the same time axis, and conducting official exchanges between schools and the official system.

  "The time system is consistent with the world, and our exchanges with the West will not be misplaced in time." Chen Lianshan said that when New Year's Day comes, many heads of state will issue New Year messages, which is also a way for countries around the world to communicate with each other.

  One day on New Year's Day holiday, sending greeting cards, sending desk calendars have become many people's childhood memories.

Xiao Fang believes that, unlike the Spring Festival, which emphasizes family affection, the expression of concern and greetings between teachers, classmates, and friends on New Year's Day is also a kind of interpersonal social and emotional exchange.

  The Spring Festival, named after "Spring is the first of the year", continues to be a traditional Chinese holiday. Having reunion dinner and greeting each other during the Lunar New Year has become a unique way of celebrating between relatives.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council will hold a Spring Festival group call on the eve of the Spring Festival to pay New Year greetings to the people of all ethnic groups across the country, compatriots from Hong Kong and Macao, compatriots from Taiwan, and overseas Chinese. It also means "family reunion".

  What's interesting is that after the parallel of the Gregorian New Year and the Lunar New Year, the greeting "Happy New Year" has gradually been used both on the New Year's Day and the Spring Festival on emerging social media.

The Chinese also have many "new folk customs" that coincide with the two New Years, such as the New Year's Day party and the Spring Festival party; both the New Year's Day and the Spring Festival.

  "I usually send a message to my friends'Happy New Year' on New Year's Day, and greet'Happy New Year' on Chinese New Year." Xiao Fang said, "But that's not important. The important thing is that we deepen our understanding of ourselves during the festival. Cultural identity, while being open and tolerant towards foreign cultures.” (End)