The night before the Spring Festival is called Chinese New Year s Eve, why keep the New Year

Keeping the New Year, that is, not sleeping on the last night of the old year, staying up late to welcome the arrival of the new year, also called Chinese New Year's Eve Keeping the New Year, commonly known as "staying up the year". The origin of this custom has an interesting story among the people:

In the primeval period, there was a fierce monster that lived in the deep mountains and dense forests, and people called them "Nian". Its appearance is hideous, natural **, specializing in birds and animals, scaly insects, a day to change a taste, from kowtow insects to eat big living people, let people talk about the "year" color change. Later, people slowly grasped the activity law of "Nian", which is to go to the place where the crowd gathers every 365 days to taste the freshness, and the time of haunting is after dark, and when the rooster cries at dawn, they will return to the mountains and forests.

After calculating the date when the "year" was raging, the people regarded this terrible night as a pass and called it "New Year's Pass", and came up with a whole set of ways to pass the New Year's pass: every night on this day, every family prepared dinner in advance, turned off the fire and cleaned the stove, and then tied all the chicken pens and cattle pens, sealed the front and rear doors of the house, and hid in the house to eat the "Chinese New Year's Eve dinner". Before eating, the ancestors must be sacrificed, and the gods of the ancestors must be blessed, and the night will be spent peacefully. The habit of staying up on Chinese New Year's Eve has gradually formed.

Keeping the New Year symbolizes driving away all evil plagues and epidemics, and looking forward to the auspicious new year. There is not only the feeling of regret and nostalgia for the passing years, but also the meaning of placing good hopes on the coming New Year. The time of observance is generally the time when the old and new years alternate, in the middle of the night.

Chinese New Year's Eve is one of the most important New Year's celebrations, and the custom of keeping the New Year has a long history. Keeping the New Year, that is, not sleeping on the last night of the old year, staying up late to welcome the arrival of the new year, also called Chinese New Year's Eve Keeping the New Year, commonly known as "staying up the year".

1. The meaning of keeping the year:

Keeping the New Year, also known as keeping the New Year's fire, lighting the New Year, etc., has a long history and is one of the Chinese folk customs activities. On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, folk activities are mainly manifested in lighting and keeping the New Year's fire, that is, all houses are lit with candles and candles, and the family gathers to welcome the New Year.

Second, the origin of the New Year.

Legend has it that in the Cangzhou area of Hebei Province, every year in the summer calendar month, every household is busy from the twenty-third day to the thirtieth day. Staying up late at thirty nights is called "keeping the New Year". This custom is related to Grandma Stove King.

Grandma Stove Wang was well aware of the suffering of the people, so she often brought some food, drink, clothing, and use from heaven to the poor people in the name of going back to her parents' house to visit relatives.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, every family did not sleep, waiting for Grandma Zao Wang to return. As soon as people saw that Grandma Stove King was back and brought back a lot of good things for the New Year, they all lit incense, paper codes, and firecrackers to welcome Grandma Stove King. At this time, it was the fifth day of Chinese New Year's Eve.

In order to commemorate the grandmother of the stove king, people do not forget her kindness, the twenty-third day of the lunar month of the summer calendar every year to sacrifice the stove, and do not sleep in the thirtieth night, which is called "keeping the year". There is also a name called "boiling 100 years old". This is to wait for the virtuous and kind Grandma Stove King to return from heaven to earth.

This custom has been passed down to this day.

Legend 2: Legend 2 The fire originated from the need to exorcise evil spirits in ancient times. The custom of keeping the New Year arose in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and many literati in the Liang Dynasty had poems and essays about keeping the New Year. "One night is two years old, and five watches are divided into two years.

People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, symbolizing the drive away all evil plagues and diseases, and looking forward to the auspicious new year. This custom has been passed down to the present day.

Legend has it that three Chinese New Year's Eve is kept at the age of three years, commonly known as the year of survival. Why is it called a year? There is such an interesting story that has been passed down from generation to generation among Chinese folklore: according to legend, in the ancient era of flood and famine, there was a vicious monster, and people called it Nian.

Every night of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, the Nian beast will crawl out of the sea to harm people and animals, destroy the countryside, and bring disaster to people who have worked hard for a year. In order to avoid the beast of the year, on the night of the thirtieth day of the lunar month, the door was closed early before it was dark, and they did not dare to sleep, and sat and waited for dawn.

Keeping the New Year is a custom of the folk Chinese New Year's Eve, and the folk pay attention to the fact that the lights are not extinguished all night, and the family stays up late to welcome the New Year, so that the family can be rich next year.

It has been around for a long time. In the Western Jin Dynasty's "Records of the Wind and Soil", it is written: "On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, each phase and gift is called "Gift Year"; Wine and food are invited, called "farewell year"; The young and old gather to drink, and the blessing is complete, which is called "dividing the year"; Everyone stays awake all night long, waiting for the dawn, and is called "keeping the year".

The last sentence is to write that everyone does not sleep all night and waits until dawn, which is called keeping the New Year.

Chinese New Year's Eve starts eating Chinese New Year's Eve dinner from dark, so Chinese New Year's Eve dinner will be prepared more and more hearty, because everyone has to eat slowly until late at night. The Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is on the table, and there are rich snacks and fruits at home.

In addition to lighting the lights in each house, it is necessary to light the lamp under the bed, so that there is no dim dead end in the home. After taking this overnight, the family can have a lot of money in the coming year, and it will be prosperous for a year.

Keeping the New Year is a folk custom, and "lighting the lamp to shine on the New Year" is an auspicious saying among the people, expressing a wish that life will be better.

The all-night vigil symbolizes the exorcism of all evil plagues and the expectation of good luck in the new year. This custom has since become popular, and to this day, it is customary to celebrate the New Year on Chinese New Year's Eve. The custom of keeping the New Year not only has the feeling of regret and nostalgia for the passing years, but also has the meaning of placing good hopes on the coming New Year.

The elderly keep the year as filial piety and "say goodbye to the old year", which means cherishing time; Young people observe the age of their parents to prolong their parents' lives. Since the Han Dynasty, the time of alternation between the old and the new year is generally in the middle of the night.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, northerners make dumplings and southerners make rice cakes. Dumplings resemble each other"Ingots", rice cakes sound similar"years old", are good omens of good luck. The whole family eats together"New Year's dinner", when eating the New Year's dinner, on the table"Fish"is not able to move, because this fish represents"Affluent"and clever stool bends"More than every year", symbolizing the coming year"Fortune and luck", it belongs to a kind of decoration and cannot be touched.

Chinese New Year's Eve is one of the most important New Year's customs activities, and the custom of keeping the New Year has been rude for a long time. The earliest record is found in the "Chronicles of the Customs" in the Western Jin Dynasty: on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, each phase and gift, called "Gift Year"; Wine and food are invited, called "farewell year"; The young and old gather to drink, and the blessing is complete, which is called "dividing the year"; Everyone stays awake all night long, waiting for the dawn, and is called "keeping the year".

On Chinese New Year's Eve, the whole family gathers together, eats Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, lights candles or oil lamps, sits around the fireside and chats, waits for the time to say goodbye to the old and welcomes the new, and keeps vigil all night, symbolizing the exorcism of all evil plagues and looking forward to the auspicious new year. This custom gradually prevailed later, and in the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem of "Keeping the New Year": "The cold leaves the winter snow, and the warmth brings the spring breeze."

To this day, it is customary to celebrate the New Year on Chinese New Year's Eve.

Keeping the New Year, that is, not sleeping on the last night of the old year, the custom of staying up late to welcome the arrival of the new year, also called Chinese New Year's Eve Keeping the New Year, commonly known as "staying up the year".

In ancient times, there were two meanings of keeping the New Year: the elderly kept the New Year as "saying goodbye to the old year", which meant cherishing time; Young people observe the age of their parents to prolong their parents' lives. Since the Han Dynasty, the time of the turn of the new and the old year is generally in the middle of the night.

On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, men and women, young and old, will gather together to celebrate the New Year. Therefore, keeping the New Year is one of the customs of the Spring Festival.