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发布时间：2022-04-20 04:04
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时间：2022-05-15 18:15
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The most important holiday in China is Spring Festival, it is also known as the Chinese New Year. To the Chinese people, it is as important as Christmas to people in the West. Spring Festival symbolizes the great unity, prosperity and prospect for the future.
The dates for this annual celebration are determined by the lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, so the timing of the holiday varies from late January to early February.
Preparations for the New Year begin the last few days of the last moon, houses are thoroughly cleaned, debts are repaid, hair is cut and new clothes are purchased. People put spring festival distiches onto the door or wall facing the door in the sitting room. This is done to express the people's wish for a peaceful and happy new year. In many homes, people burn incense（香） at home and in the temples to pay respects to ancestors and ask the gods for good health in the coming year.
Legend -- Story of Nian “年”的故事
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The Spring Festival is the grandest festival for the Chinese. The Spring Festival is also called "Nian", but who knows the term, Nian, was once the name of a furious monster. they lived on human beings in the ancient time. How the Festival has some relationship with the monster lies in a story about the origin and development of the Spring Festival.
The legend says, long ago, there was a monster called Nian. It was born to be very ugly and ferocious（凶猛的）, which looked like either dragons or unicorns（独角兽）. On the first and the 15th of each lunar month, the monster would come down from the mountains to hunt people. So people were very much afraid of it and locked their doors early before sunset on the days of its coming.
There lived an old wise man in a village. He thought it was the panic in people that made the monster so bold and furious. Thus the old man asked people to organize together and to conquer the monster by means of beating drums and gongs, burning bamboo, and lighting fireworks in purpose of making large noises to threaten the hateful monster. When he told people about the idea, everybody agreed on it.
At a moonless and freezing cold night, the monster, Nian, appeared again. The moment it opened its mouth at people, burst out the frightening noises and fire made by people, and wherever the monster went, it was forced to back off by the terrible noises. The monster couldn't stop running until he fell down with exhaustion. Then people jumped up and killed the evil monster. Savage as the monster was, he lost in the end under the efforts from the cooperation of people.
Since then, people have kept the tradition by beating drums and gongs, and lighting fireworks at the coldest day in winter to drive the imagined monsters away and to celebrate the victory over it. Today, Nian refers to the New Year's day or the Spring Festival. People often say Guo Nian, which means 'live the festival.' Furthermore, Nian also means the year. For an example, the Chinese often greet each other by saying Xin Nian Hao, which means Happy New Year! Xin means new and Hao means good.
Story of playing fireworks
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In China, people play to express joy and happiness ring the Spring Festival and on other auspicious occasions（喜庆日子）. Fireworks playing is regarded as one of China's most important customs.
The history of firework can be dated back to（追溯） over 2,000 years ago. The earliest firework was called Ting Liao（庭燎）, it was made up of something like bamboo sticks（竹筒） and would make stuttering sound（噼噼啪啪的爆裂声） when it is burned.
Firework was first played to dispel（驱使） ghosts and evil spirits and look for（祈求） auspiciousness and happiness. It is said that a four-horned monster（四角兽） called Shan Sao（山臊） and some other ghosts. They hid in mountains and came out to harm human beings and their livestock every 365 days. However, they were afraid of sound and light. People therefore played fireworks in order to drive away Shan Sao and evil spirits at the end of one year and the beginning of a year.
After gunpowder was invented in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), people began to make fireworks by cramming gunpowder into bamboo tubes to proce greater sound. In the Song Dynasty (960 - 1271), bamboo tubes was replaced with paper coverings. Later, a new kind of firecracker was invented which was made by linking many smaller firecrackers together with powder train（药线）. This new firecracker called Bao Zhu could sound continuously.
Well-made firecrackers are usually packed with red paper. When exploded, scraps of red paper will be scattered all over the floor, which forebodes auspiciousness. During the Spring Festival you can see people playing firecrackers in various kinds and with different colors. As Chinese become more aware of environment protection, playing fireworks has already been prohibited（禁止） in many cities. Still, people celebrate their holidays in many other ways.
The Double Ninth Festival 重阳（亦称重九）(the 9th day of the 9th lunar month)
On this day, also called Chongyang Festival, people customarily climb up mountains and appreciate chrysanthemums. It is also the festival for the old and a time for family get-togethers.
As a famous Chinese saying goes: On festive occasion more than ever we think of our dear ones far away. 每逢佳节倍思亲。
The Dragon Boat Festival 龙船节或五龙节(the 5th day of the 5th lunar month)
Also called Duanwu Festival亦称端午节，most people say that the day is held in remembrance of Qu Yuan (c.340-c.278 BC), a great patriotic poet of Chu State in the Warring States period (475-221 BC) who committed suicide in the Miluo River, Hunan Province 大都认为是悼念投湖南汨罗的战国时楚国爱国诗人屈原；others argue that the ancient Yue people held sacrifices to the dragon totem 古越人举行的龙图腾祭俗；still others narrate that the festival has been evolved from the Summer Solstice in the Xia (2070-1600 BC), Shang (1600-1046 BC), and Zhou (1046-256 BC) dynasties 由夏、商、周的夏至节演变而来的。People eat zongzi, a pyramid-shaped mpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in reed leaves, compete in dragon boat races, cleanse their homes by putting up the leaves of mugwort (Artemisia argyi) 插艾（别称家艾、艾嵩）or cattail on either side of the door, spray realgar water晒雄黄 in the room, and drink realgar wine饮雄黄酒 (traditionally drunk ring the Dragon Boat Festival to get rid of calamities and prevent poisonous creatures避瘟逐疫).
The Lantern Festival 灯节（亦称上元节）(the 15th of the first lunar month)
Also called Yuanxiao亦称元宵节Festival, it is the climax of the Spring Festival. On the night of the Lantern Festival, people go out to parks and other places to view the often very intricate lanterns, figure out the lantern puzzles, and eat yuanxiao, a kind of small round mplings made of glutinous rice flour containing sweet fillings.
The Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节（俗称团圆节）(the 15th day of the 8th lunar month)
It is a time for family reunions, symbolized by the full moon, which appears to be bigger and brighter than it is at any other time of the year, and moon cakes. It is traditional to eat moon cakes on the day drink wine fermented with osmanthus flowers and enjoy the moon at night 吃中秋月饼、饮桂花酒、赏月为乐。
It is also called the Calamus Festival (the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, on which calamus leaves used to be hung at the door ward off evil spirits).
参考资料：goegle
