Chinese New Year! Year of Horse.

The History and Origin of Chinese New Year 

Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year is the most important among the traditional Chinese holidays. It is celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar, i.e. the day of the second new moon after the day on which the winter solstice occurs. Popularly known as the Spring Festival, the festival isunofficially observed on 23rd day or 24th day of the 12th month of the lunar calendar and ends with the Lantern Festival, which is on the fifteenth day of the First month of the New Year (i.e. a full moon). 

The Origin of New Year 

Many historical and mythical legends are being associated since a long time, with the celebration of the New Year festival however few amongst them which actually is quite correlated with the celebration are as follows. 

As far as the century-old legend is concerned, the celebration of the festival is dedicated to aterrible mythical monster named Nian, who preyed on the villagers and used to terrorise them. Thus according to the oft-heard legend, an old wise man advised his fellow villagers to make loud noises with drums and firecrackers so that the loud noise could petrify the demon Nian thus warding him away.Moreover he further advised the villagers to hang red paper cut-outs and scroll them on their doors for Nianwas scared of the color red. The villagers did as was being instructed, thus Nian was fully conquered. Fromthen onwardsthe anniversary of the date is recognizedas the “passing of the Nian, which also became synonymous with celebrating the New Year. 

Moreover if anyone goes as per the historical background one will be thrilled at the striking incident which are being associated with. The Chinese were basically agrarian people. Their main occupation comprised of agricultural works. So forthe whole purpose, calendar was required to be maintained for keeping track of time so as to facilitate agriculture. It was important to know when to till the soil and when the time is ripe to sow the seeds. Thus it can be rightly assumed that the first calendar in China was a sort of put together for the benefit of agriculture production. However the date of Chinese New Year changes every year as it is entirely based on the lunar calendar. For while the western Gregorian calendar is based on the earth’s orbit around the sun, China and most Asian countries do use the lunar calendar which is based on the moon’s orbit around the earth. Thus Chinese New Year always falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. 

Since the Chinese civilization came much earlier than the Buddhism and Daoism development, hence the customs related to the celebration are far more different from the other religions, for like any agrarian society, Chinese New Year is rooted in much a celebration of spring just like Easter or Passover. Thus the New Year was likely the start of preparations for a new growing season. 

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