除夕子时进入大年初一，进入正式的年节，从初一到十五，都算过年。初一，祭祖，一般在子时。开门鞭炮避邪。迎喜神，老皇历写着今年喜神的方向，迎着其方向走，天亮以后去拜年，拜不过来让仆人送飞贴，有点贺年卡的意思，宋代便有。《癸辛杂识》中沈公子派人投飞帖，投到吴四丈家，吴叫其仆人喝酒，换贴。最早的春联是蜀后主孟昶发明的，“新年纳余庆，佳节号长春”，写在桃木板上，明代以后，春联开始流行。初二，继续拜年，媳妇回娘家，叫归宁，北方祭财神，吃元宝汤即混饨。初三，老鼠娶亲 因此不能熬夜，还要在地上撒些盐米。初四，迎神接神的日子，一切人间神回到人间，傍晚接神。初五，破五 ，照例还要吃饺子，从初一到初四有很多禁忌，初五破除，祭祖的供品要撤，垃圾可倒，刀剪可动，稀饭可吃，商店开张大吉，迎五路财神，到此主要节日过完。初七，人日 ，小孩节日，煮七种菜为羹。河南省淮阳人祖庙有盛大庙会（人祖是伏羲）祖庙会上特有的泥泥狗，形象是只猴，认为是最早的人祖。初八，顺星，从星聚会之期，要拜星君，黄昏后点四十九盏灯，摆天地桌（院子里），灯散放各处，叫散灯，老北京一般到白云观的六神殿顺星。初九，玉帝诞辰，祭玉皇祭天官。十三至十七都是元宵佳节，十三在厨下点灯，一连点五夜，过十七，十八收灯，十三试灯，十四搭彩蒯，迎紫姑神，正月十五是元宵节的正日子，举行盛大的灯会，正月十五还是道教的上元节：天官赐福，地官赦罪，水官解厄，上元是天官生日，中元（七月十五）是地官生日，下元（十月十五）是水官生日，这一天还有很多祈子的习俗，江苏有打妇求子的习俗，广东有偷生菜的习俗，北京可到正阳门摸门钉。正月十八收灯，年就过完了，一切活动恢复正常。The Origin of Chinese New YearChinese New Year, pronounced in Chinese as "xin nian", always falls on the date of marking the beginning of the spring and thus it is also called the "Spring Festival". "xin" means "new" and "nian" means "year". There are many stories told about the origin of "nian", which actually is a name of animals.The old story says that the beast "nian" with a very big mouth was so fierce and could swallow many people in one single bite. People were very scared. An old man offered to subdue "nian" and said to "nian": "I hear that you are very capable, but can you swallow the other beasts instead of people who are by no means of your worthy opponents?" So "nian" swallowed many of the other beasts that hurt people and their domestic animals. The old man turned out to be an immortal god and riding the beast "nian" flied to the heaven. Now that "nian" is gone and other beasts were also scared into forests, people began to enjoy their peaceful life. Before the old man left, he had told people to put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year's end to scare away "nian" in case it sneaked back again, because red is the color the beast feared the most.From there on, the term "guo nian" has the meaning of "pass-over" or "survive" the "nian". By tradition, Chinese businesses had to pay off all debts by the year-end and thus if they could get it over, it is worth for the celebration of the New Year.Today people still put up red paper and firing firecrackers as way of celebration. "guo nian" becomes a tradition of celebration for thousand of years.王琬婧四年级七班Wednesday, February 12, 2003