The Chinese are now celebrating Christmas with almost fervent enthusiasm, and Valentine's Day has quietly penetrated into the hearts and minds of countless young people, becoming another important festival in addition to the traditional Chinese holidays. The origin and significance of Valentine's Day may not be known to most people. The following is just one of the many legends about Valentine's Day.
In ancient Roman times, February 14th was a holiday set aside to honor Yona. Yona was the queen of the Roman gods, and the Romans honored her as both the god of women and marriage. The next day, February 15, was known as "Lupusala," a festival to honor the other gods and goddesses under the rule of Jona.
In ancient Rome, the lives of young men and women were kept strictly separate. However, on the festival of Lupasara, lads were allowed to choose the name of a girl of their choice to be engraved on a vase. This way, when the festival was over, the lad could dance with the girl of his choice and celebrate the festival. If the chosen girl was also interested in the boy, they would be paired up and eventually they would fall in love and walk into the church together to get married. For this reason, the 14th of February is celebrated as Valentine's Day every year.
In the West, Valentine's Day is not only the best time to express love, but also the best time to propose to one's beloved. In this regard, Valentine's Day reflects, is not it the original intention of the ancient Romans to design this holiday?
September 10th, Gregorian calendar, is China's Teachers' Day.
China's history has established a Teachers' Day. 1931, educators Tai Shuangqiu, Cheng Qibao and other gatherings in Nanjing Central University, issued a declaration calling for "improving the treatment of teachers, safeguarding the work of teachers and enhancing the cultivation of teachers," and agreed on June 6 as Teachers' Day, also known as Double Six Day. Soon after, the Kuomintang government first agreed to celebrate June 6 as Teachers' Day, but later changed it to August 27 (Confucius' birthday).
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Central People's Government had reinstated June 6 as Teachers' Day, and the Ministry of Education notified educators in all parts of the country that they could organize their own celebrations in accordance with the actual situation.In 1951, the National Education Trade Union was established, and educators were recognized as a part of the working class.On April 19, 1951, the Minister of Education and the Chairman of the National Committee of the China Education Workers' Union issued a written statement declaring "May 1 International Labor Day is also Teachers' Day. However, due to the lack of teachers' characteristics on this day, the results of the implementation were not satisfactory. Especially after 1957, under the influence of the "left" ideology, teachers were not emphasized, and Teachers' Day practically ceased to exist.
In recent years, the Chinese government has taken many measures to mobilize society as a whole to respect teachers, raise their status, and improve their working and living conditions. In order to further improve the political and social status of teachers, to form a social trend of respecting teachers, respecting knowledge and respecting talents, and to promote the development of education, based on the repeated proposals of deputies to the National People's Congress, members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and people from all walks of life, especially teachers in various parts of the country, as well as the experience of carrying out activities to respect teachers in various parts of the country, the State Council, on January 11th, 1985, submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress The State Council proposed to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on January 11, 1985, a motion to establish September 10 as Teachers' Day every year
. At the Sixth National People's Congress held on January 21 of the same year, it agreed to the motion on the establishment of Teachers' Day and decided that September 10 would be Teachers' Day.
The determination of September 10 as Teachers' Day is because at the beginning of the new student enrollment, that is, the beginning of the activities of respect for teachers, can give teachers to teach well, students learn to create a good atmosphere. At the same time, fewer national festivals in September, easy for all parties to focus on the time to organize activities and highlight publicity and reporting, and promote the formation of a nationwide respect for teachers, respect for knowledge, respect for talent and a good social trend.
The establishment of Teachers' Day signifies that teachers are honored by the whole society in our country. This is because the work of teachers largely determines the future of our country. The work of teachers is closely related to every family, every child, teenager and youth. Teachers play a great role in the development and progress of human society. Teachers are the engineers who forged human civilization, and they are the transmitters and builders of human civilization. The continuity of the development of human civilization depends on the labor of teachers from generation to generation. If a society, a country or a nation does not have the hard and effective work of teachers, then the civilization process of that society, country and nation will suffer losses. Therefore, a history of civilization is inconceivable without the factor of teachers.
Since then, every year on Teachers' Day, teachers all over the country have celebrated their day in different ways. By selecting and rewarding them, presenting their experiences, helping to solve practical difficulties in salary, housing and medical care, and improving teaching conditions, the enthusiasm of the majority of teachers to engage in the cause of education has been greatly enhanced.
The Chongyang Festival is also known as the Festival of Ascending Heights. On this day, people ascend to see the distance and miss their relatives. As the poem says: "Every festive season is twice as important as thinking of relatives." So how did the Chongyang Festival come about?
Originally, China's ancient nine called "Yang number", the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the two nine overlap, are Yang number, and therefore called "Chongyang". Chongyang Festival from the Taoist story of a fairy:
Eastern Han Dynasty, Ru Nan County, there is a young man called Huan Jing's countryside, parents, wife and children of a big family. Although the day is not good, half food and half grain can get by. Who knows the unfortunate thing came. Both sides of the Ru River caused a plague, families are sick, corpses all over the place, no one buried. This year, Huan Jing's parents also died of illness.
When Huanjing was a child, he heard his elders say, "There is a plague demon living in the River Ru, and every year it comes out and walks around the earth. Wherever it went, it brought the plague with it. Huanjing was determined to learn from his masters, to fight the plague, and to rid the people of its evils. When he heard that a great immortal named Fei Changfang lived in the southeastern mountains, he packed his bags and set out for the mountains to learn from his master.
Fei Changfang gave Huanjing a Demon Busting Green Dragon Sword. Huanjing woke up early and went to bed late, wearing stars and moonlight, practicing day and night. In the blink of an eye is another year, that day Huanjing is practicing sword, Fei Changfang came to the front and said: "This year, September 9, Ruhe plague demon again to come out. You should hurry back to your hometown to get rid of the plague for the people. I will give you a bag of cornelian cherry leaves and a bottle of chrysanthemum wine, so that your hometown fathers and mothers can ascend the heights to avoid the disaster." After the Immortal Weng said that, he pointed with his hand, and an immortal crane flew in with its wings spreading and landed in front of Huanjing. Huanjing straddled the crane and flew toward Ru Nan.
Huanjing returned to his hometown and gathered his folks. He told the people about the words of the Great Immortal. On the ninth day of the ninth month, he led his wife, children, townspeople and elders up a nearby mountain. The dogwood leaves each person divided a piece, said so that carry with you, the plague demon dare not close to you. And the chrysanthemum wine poured out, each person pecked a mouthful, said drink chrysanthemum wine, not infected with the plague disease. He put the townspeople arrangements, with his Demon Green Dragon Sword back to the home, sitting alone in the house, waiting for the plague of demons to come to the battle of demon-subduing.
Not long ago, only to hear the roar of the River Ru, strange winds swirling up. The plague demon came out of the water and walked up the bank, through the village, walked thousands of string ten thousand households did not see a person, suddenly looked up to see people are in the high mountain gathering. It scurried to the bottom of the mountain, only to feel the wine gas pungent, cornelian flush lungs, do not dare to climb close to the mountain, and then turned back to the village. Only to see a man is sitting in the house. Then roared and pounced forward. Huan Jing saw the plague demon pounced, hastily dance sword to meet the battle. After a few rounds of fighting, the plague demon could not defeat him and ran away. Huanjing "whoosh" throws the Demon Green Dragon Sword, only to see the sword flashing cold light to the plague demon chase, through the heart through the lungs of the plague demon stabbed down to the ground.
After that, the people on both sides of the Ru River were no longer victimized by the plague. People passed down the story of the 9th day of the 9th lunar month, when Huanjing stabbed the plague demon, from father to son and from son to grandson, until now. Since then, people have celebrated the Chung Yeung Festival with the custom of ascending the heights on the ninth day of the ninth month.
The Chongyang Festival is nearly late in the fall, the atmosphere is cool, the air is fresh, visibility is high, which is probably the reason why people choose to climb up to the sky!
"Yuan" has the meaning of the beginning, "Dan" refers to the time of day, but also refers to the daytime. New Year's Day is the first day of the year. The word "New Year's Day" first came from the poem "Jie Ya" by Xiao Ziyun of Liang in the Southern Dynasty: "The four airs are new on New Year's Day, and all life is in the beginning of this day." Song Dynasty Wu Zimu "Meng Liang Record" Volume 1 "first month" entry: "the first day of the first month, known as New Year's Day, commonly known as New Year's Day.
China's successive generations of New Year's Day of the month is not consistent. Xia dynasty in the first day of the first month, the Shang dynasty in the first day of December, the Zhou dynasty in the first day of November, Qin Shi Huang united the six countries, and the first day of October for the New Year's Day, and since then the successive generations have not been changed ("Records of the Grand Historian"). The first year of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, Sima Qian created the "Tai Chu Calendar", which is the first day of the first month of the New Year's Day, and the same provisions of the Xia Dynasty, so it is also known as the "Xia Calendar", has been used until the Xinhai Revolution. The establishment of the Republic of China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen in order to "line Xiazheng, so along with the agricultural time; from the Western calendar, so that the statistics", the first day of the first month (New Year's Day) for the Spring Festival, and to the Western calendar (Gregorian calendar) on January 1 for the New Year.
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 New Year's Day, while the traditional old calendar year is called 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", YuanDan together that is "the initial day", also is the first day of the year. Is 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 AD 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 date of "New Year's Day" 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.
Duanwu Festival Introduction:
The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, is a traditional Chinese folk festival - the Dragon Boat Festival, which is one of the ancient traditional festivals of the Chinese nation. Duanwu is also known as Duanwu, Duanyang. In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many aliases, such as: Wuzhi Festival, heavy five festival, May Festival, Bath Orchid Festival, Daughter Festival, the day in the festival, the ground wax, the Poet's Day, Dragon Day and so on. Although the name is different, but on the whole, people around the custom of the festival or more than different.
Over the Dragon Boat Festival, is the Chinese people more than two thousand years of traditional habits, due to the vast area, many ethnic groups, coupled with many stories and legends, so not only produced a number of different names of the festival, but also has different customs. Its content is mainly: the daughter back to his mother's home, hanging Zhong Kui statue, welcome the ghost ship, avoiding Wu, posting Wu Ye Fu, hanging calamus, wormwood, swim in a hundred diseases, Pei Xiangbao, ready to sweet, dragon boat racing, martial arts, batting, swinging, to the children painted with xionghuang, drinking xionghuang liquor, calamus wine, eat five poisonous cakes, salted eggs, zongzi and seasonal fruits, etc., in addition to superstitious color of the activities have gradually disappeared, the rest of the so far spread all over China and the neighboring countries. Some activities, such as dragon boat racing, have been newly developed, breaking through time and geographical boundaries and becoming international sporting events.
On the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, there are many ways of saying, such as: commemorate Qu Yuan said; commemorate Wu Zixu said; commemorate Cao E said; from the three generations of the summer solstice festival said; the evil month of the evil day to drive to avoid said, Wu Yue national totem sacrifices said and so on. Each of the above said, each of its origin. According to scholars Mr. Wen Yiduo's "Dragon Boat Festival" and "Dragon Boat Festival of the history of education" listed more than a hundred ancient records and expert archaeological evidence, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, is the ancient Chinese southern Wu Yue national totem festival, earlier than Qu Yuan. However, over the centuries, Qu Yuan's patriotic spirit and touching poems have been widely and y rooted in people's hearts, so people "cherish and mourn them, and the world discusses their words in order to pass them on to each other", therefore, commemorating Qu Yuan's words has the widest and deepest impact, and occupies a mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, the Chinese people put the Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Race and eat rice dumplings, etc., are associated with the commemoration of Qu Yuan.
To this day, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular and solemn festival among the Chinese people.
The Dragon Boat Festival:
The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festival that began in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods in China and has a history of more than 2,000 years. There are many origins and legends of the Dragon Boat Festival, only the following four are introduced here:
Originally commemorating Qu Yuan
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, "Qu Yuan Jia Sheng Lianzhuan", Qu Yuan was a minister of King Huai of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated for the promotion of the virtuous and the capable, the enrichment of the country and the strengthening of the army, and advocated for the alliance of Qi against Qin, which was strongly opposed by the aristocrat Zilan and others, and Qu Yuan was forced to leave his post, driven out of the capital city, and exiled to the Yuan and Xiang basins. During his exile, he wrote such immortal poems as "Li Sao", "Heavenly Questions" and "Nine Songs", which are unique and far-reaching (thus, the Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the Poets' Festival). In 278 B.C., the Qin army attacked the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan saw his motherland being invaded, and his heart was cut to pieces, but he could not bear to give up his motherland, and on the 5th of May, after writing his final poem "Huai Sha", he threw himself into the Miluo River, and died, composing a magnificent piece of patriotism with his own life.
Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu were in mourning and flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to him. The fishermen rowed up their boats and salvaged his real body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out for Qu Yuan prepared rice balls, eggs and other food, "flop, flop" thrown into the river, said that the fish and lobsters and crabs eat enough, will not go to bite the body of Dr. Qu. People see have followed suit. An old physician to bring a altar of yellow wine poured into the river, said to be drug stunned dragon water beasts, so as not to harm Dr. Qu. Later, for fear of rice balls for the dragon to eat, people came up with a neem leaf wrapped in rice, wrapped in colorful silk, developed into a brown.
After that, on the fifth day of the fifth month of every year, there is a dragon boat race, eat zongzi, drink xionghuang wine custom; in order to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.
Originally in honor of Wu Zixu
The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is widely circulated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, commemorates Wu Zixu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC). Wu Zixu, a native of Chu, had his father and brother killed by the king of Chu. Later, Wu Zixu abandoned his darkness and ran to Wu to help Wu conquer Chu, and entered Ying City, the capital of Chu, in five battles. At that time, King Ping of Chu had already died, and Zixu dug up his grave and whipped his body 300 times to avenge the killing of his father and brother. After the death of King Helu of Wu, his son Fu Chai succeeded to the throne. The Wu army had high morale and won a hundred battles, and the Yue kingdom was greatly defeated, and King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, and Fu Chai agreed to it. Zixu suggested that the state of Yue should be completely destroyed, but Fu-chai refused to listen to him, and Wu's Dazai, who had been bribed by the state of Yue, framed Zixu with slanderous rumors, and Fu-chai believed him and gave Zixu a sword, which he used to kill himself. Zixu was a loyal and good man, and he looked upon death as a homecoming. Before his death, he said to his neighbors, "When I die, I will dig out my eyes and hang them on the east gate of Wu Jing to see the Vietnamese army entering the city to destroy Wu", and then he killed himself. Fu Chai was furious at the news, and he ordered to take the body of Zixu and put it into a leather bag to throw it into a big river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, so it was said that the Dragon Boat Festival was also the day to commemorate Wu Zixu.
The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates Cao E, a filial daughter who saved her father's life and threw herself into the river during the Eastern Han Dynasty (23 - 220 A.D.). Cao E was a Shangyu people in the Eastern Han Dynasty, his father drowned in the river, a few days to see the body, the filial daughter of Cao E was only fourteen years old, day and night along the river crying. After seventeen days, she threw herself into the river on May 5, and carried her father's body out five days later. The story was passed down as a myth, and the story was passed down to the governor of the county, who made Dushan erect a monument for it, and had his disciple Handan Chun write a eulogy in praise of it.
The tomb of Cao E, a filial daughter, is located in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and the monument to Cao E is said to have been written by Wang Yi of the Jin Dynasty. To commemorate Cao E's filial piety, a Cao E Temple was built at the place where Cao E threw herself into the river, the village where she lived was renamed Cao E Town, and the place where Cao E died for her father was named Cao E River.
Originally from the ancient Vietnamese national totem sacrifice
Many recent excavations and archaeological research has confirmed that: the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the Neolithic era, there is a geometric printed ceramic as a characteristic of the cultural remains. The remains of the clan, according to experts deduced that it is a tribe that worships the totem of the dragon ---- historically known as the Baiyue tribe. Unearthed pottery on the decoration and historical legends show that they have the custom of breaking hair tattoos, living in the water countryside, comparing themselves to the descendants of the dragon. Their production tools, a large number of stone tools, but also shovels, chisels and other small pieces of bronze. As a living thing in the altar pots and jars, cooking food printed pots are unique to them, is one of the symbols of their ethnic groups. Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still Baiyue people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was created by them for ancestor worship. Over thousands of years of history, most of the Baiyue people have integrated into the Han Chinese, while the rest have evolved into many ethnic minorities in the south, making the Dragon Boat Festival a festival for the entire Chinese nation.
Allusion to Halloween
In Western countries, on October 31 every year, there is a Halloween, the dictionary explains as "The eve of All Saints' Day", the Chinese translation: Halloween night.
On Halloween, people more or less have a certain perceptual knowledge: know that during Halloween, many public **** places and even homes, will be decorated with a lot of decoration, such as various ghosts and monsters ah, pumpkin lamps ah, as well as black cats and witches' brooms and so on; children will wear different Halloween costumes every year, carrying pumpkin lamps basket to go door-to-door to ask for candy, said that the "trick or treak". "trick or treak". Other than that, do you want to know a little more? We are here to briefly introduce the origin and customs of Halloween.
First, the origin of Halloween:
On the origin of Halloween, the version with the most legends believes that it was originated from the ancient Western European countries before the birth of Christ, mainly including Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The ancient Western Europeans in these places were called Druids. Druidic New Year in November 1, New Year's Eve, the Druids let the young people set the team, wearing a variety of strange masks, carrying a carved turnip lamp (pumpkin lamp system of the later custom, the earliest of the ancient Western Europe did not have a pumpkin), they wandered through the villages. This was actually a celebration of the fall harvest; it is also said to be the "Ghost Festival", the legend says that people who died that year, the soul will visit the human world on the night before Halloween, it is said that people should let the ghosts of the visit to see a successful harvest and the ghosts to present a bountiful hospitality. All bonfires and lights are used to scare the ghosts away, but also to light up the route for the ghosts and guide them back.
In medieval Central Europe, there was a history of Christianity destroying the pagans. But the ritual celebrations before New Year's Eve were never really eliminated, though in the form of witchcraft. That's why we still have traces of witches' brooms, black cats, and spells in our current Halloween.
Second, the emergence of the word Halloween:
Many ethnic groups have celebrations and gatherings on the night before Halloween, which is also called "All Hallow E'en", "The Eve of All Hallows It was also called "All Hallow E'en", "The Eve of All Hallows", "Hallow e'en", or "The eve of All Saintas' Day". Eventually, the convention evolved into "Halloween", which translates to Halloween night.
Third, the legend of "Trick or treat":
The custom of children dressing up in costumes and going from house to house to ask for candy is said to have originated in Ireland. The Irish pagans in ancient Western Europe believed that on the night before Halloween ghosts would gather near their homes and receive a feast. Therefore, after the end of the "feast", the villagers dressed up as ghosts and elves, wandering outside the village, guiding the ghosts to leave, to avoid evil spirits and disasters. At the same time, the villagers also paid attention to the arrangement of some fruits and other foods in front of and behind their houses to feed the ghosts without letting them harm human beings and animals or plunder other harvests. Later, this custom was continued and became a joke for children to make fun of the ungenerous families.
There are also at least two theories about pumpkin lamps. One says that people hollowed out the pumpkin and carved on the face of the ghost to dispel the ghost of the candle; another says that the ghost on the candle, trying to trick people into following the ghost, so people carved on the surface of the pumpkin with a mocking face, to tease the ghost: Humph! Only fools will fall for your trick. Legend has it that because the first pumpkin is an Irishman Jack, so people will be the ghost face pumpkin lamp called Jack-O-Lantern.
Fourth, now Halloween
Halloween has been passed down to today has no religious superstitious color, it became a children's program, but also young people masquerade program.
Society has always had a positive approach to the holiday: adults are expected to teach children not to play frightening pranks, and they are also expected to take their children out with them (usually to park on the side of the road while the children knock on doors and ask for candy). Adults should ask their children to only go to homes with festive decorations and lights at the door, or else not to bother them. In addition, the child must always stand at the front door and wait for the candy, not enter the house, and the candy must be inspected by an adult before it is eaten. The family that receives the children is also asked not to give home-made food or unpackaged food.
The festive decorations on public occasions and around the home are voluntary. Ghostly pumpkin lights, white webs and black spiders, etc., are all festive decorations, and there is no longer any horrifying ghostly colors. Some schoolgirls even buy a pair of pumpkin or skeleton earrings to wear at this time of year. If there is any home decoration to do too much horror, will be stopped by the authorities, the media will also make it exposed, let the public accusation.
Halloween costumes, too, are a lot more than the monotonous big ghosts and little ghosts. There are many outlets that teach people how to make Halloween costumes. For example, the production of the simplest ghost costume with a white sheet on top of the head, do not forget to buckle two holes to stay out of the eyes is; if you want to play the magician, put on a black coat and black pants, and then put on a black bowler hat, and between the bowler hat and the top of the head to hide a fluffy bunny standby; but also to teach adults how to dress up the child as a little angel, white clothes and white pants, and then from the back of how to tie a flashlight in the head; there are also teach how to dress up the child into their There are also those who teach how to dress up children as their favorite cartoon images. The company's business is also a major player in the costume and props industry, which has a lot to offer.
Schools are closed on Halloween. Sometimes the school organizes a party, and sometimes students organize their own parties; and sending cards to friends and family to wish them a happy Halloween has become a popular custom every October. Nowadays, the development of the Internet has made it more convenient and economical to send Halloween cards, and some websites have designed a variety of Halloween cards with sound and animation effects.
In short, Halloween has become a very common seasonal holiday in the West. Many people see it as the end of fall and the arrival of winter. Once Halloween is over, people start to look forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even New Year.