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When does spring start6/23/2023 ![]() ![]() The simple answer is: no, these two festivals (in the right context) are the same. Are Chinese New Year and Spring Festival Different? In order to help distinguish between the Gregorian new year celebration and the traditional Chinese New Year, the name 'Spring Festival' seemed more fitting.Īnother reason for this chosen name, and also for why the Spring Festival is relatively long, is because at that time, the newly formed government of the Republic of China wanted to include festivals of all Chinese ethnic spring celebrations into one inclusive holiday that was not labeled 'Chinese New year' in order to respect the different new year celebrations of other ethnic groups at different dates. In 1912, when the Republic of China was formed, China adopted the use of the Gregorian Calendar ( and therefore its celebration of the new year on January 1st), but still wanted to designate specific times for the celebration of their seasonal festivals. It wasn't until 1914 that the Chinese New Year actually adopted its secondary name: the 'Spring Festival'. Moving on to more recent times, the third reason for this celebration's name is perhaps its most conclusive. Political Reasons for the Name "Spring Festival" More specifically, farmers would take a week-long rest from their hard work (during the festival) to be with family and participate in religious practices for good fortune, followed by a return to labor, where a new cycle of agricultural activities restarts. Spring Festival (such as prayers, offerings, etc.), more relevant and appropriate with relation to timing. This makes many of the agrarian traditions associated with the The traditional Chinese Lunar Calendar, which originated about 4,000 years ago during the Shang Dynasty, was historically called the 'farming calendar', and was aimed at dividing the year into seasons for agriculture.Ĭonsidering this, the celebration of the Chinese Spring Festival does in fact fall at a time when farming activities such as ploughing and planting crops start to take place, signaling the coming of spring. This leads to the second point the celebration for this festival in China began in ancient times, when traditional calendars were primarily used for practical agricultural purposes.
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