In 1911, Dr. Sun Yat-sen led the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. In order to "line Xiazheng, so smooth farming, from the Western calendar, so the statistics", the Republic of China decided to use the calendar (actually used in 1912), and the solar calendar (Gregorian calendar) January 1 for the "New Year's Day", but is not called "New Year's Day".
Today's "New Year's Day" is the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which decided to establish the People's Republic of China (PRC) on September 27, 1949, and at the same time decided to adopt the world's common Gregorian calendar and officially designated January 1 on the Gregorian calendar as the "New Year's Day". "New Year's Day", the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was changed to "Spring Festival".
2. About New Year's Day: The Origin of New Year's Day
In contemporary times, New Year's Day refers to the first day of the year in the AD calendar. Since the introduction of the Western calendar into China, the term New Year's Day has been used exclusively for the New Year, while the traditional old calendar year is called the Spring Festival.
Before that, New Year's Day had always referred to the first day of the lunar year. Yuan is the "first" "beginning" meaning, Dan refers to the "day", Yuan Dan together that is "the initial day", but also The first day of the year.
September 27, 1949, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the first plenary session of the resolution: "the Chinese people **** and the state chronology using the A.D. chronology", that is, what we call the solar calendar, in order to distinguish between the lunar calendar and the solar calendar two New Year, but also in view of the twenty-four seasons of the lunar calendar. "Spring" just before and after the lunar New Year, so the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was renamed the "Spring Festival", the first day of January in the solar calendar as "New Year's Day", so far, New Year's Day has become the national people's The first day of January on the solar calendar was designated as "New Year's Day".
Celebrating the beginning of the New Year and celebrating New Year's Day can be said to be a common custom in all countries and regions of the world. In our country, it is also included as a national holiday. China and most of the countries and regions of the world to adopt the Gregorian calendar, the January 1 as the beginning of the new year, called "New Year's Day".
Because countries around the world are located in different longitudinal positions, the time of day is also different, so the "New Year's Day" date is also different. For example, Tonga, an island nation in Oceania, is located on the western side of the Sunset Line, which is the first place in the world where the day begins and the first country to celebrate New Year's Day. And is located on the eastern side of the Japanese border of Western Samoa is the world's latest start of the new day place. By the Gregorian calendar, we are the 12th country in the world to start the New Year.
3. New Year's Day customs around the world
Thailand
Thailand's traditional New Year's Day, that is, "Songkran" ("Songkran" is the translation of the Sanskrit language), also known as the "Festival of the water! "The festival is held from April 13th to 16th in the Gregorian calendar. During the festival, people carry huge Buddha statues on carriages or carts, followed by a float with "Songkran goddesses" in make-up, and groups of young men and women in brightly colored national costumes, beating long drums and singing and dancing. On both sides of the road where the procession passes by, good men and women walk along the road, using silver bowls filled with water soaked with shells and oozing with spices, splashing them onto the Buddha statues and the "Songkran Goddess," praying for a happy New Year and good weather, then people splash water on each other, wishing their elders a long and healthy life, wishing their relatives and friends a lucky New Year, and unmarried young people, men and women, use water to splash the "Songkran Goddess. Unmarried young men and women, then splash water to show their love for each other. On the first day of the New Year, Thai people put a basin of water on the window sill and the door, and all families go to the rivers in the countryside to take a New Year's bath. In order to celebrate the New Year, the Thai people held in the scale of the "Elephant Race Conference", the contents of: human elephant tug-of-war, jumping elephants to pick up things, elephant across the human body, elephant soccer, the ancient Elephant Formation show, and so on. It is very exciting and moving.