一 : 元旦的由来

                                                  元旦节的由来

　　中国的元旦，据传说起于三皇五帝之一的颛顼，距今已有3000多年的历史。“元旦”一词最早出现于《晋书》：“颛帝以孟夏正月为元，其实正朔元旦之春”的诗中。南北朝时，南朝文史学家萧子云的《介雅》诗中也有“四季新元旦，万寿初春朝”的记载。宋代吴自牧《梦粱录》卷一“正月”条目：“正月朔日，谓之元旦，俗呼为新年。一岁节序，此为之首。”；汉代崔瑗《三子钗铭》中叫“元正”；晋代庾阐《扬都赋》中称作“元辰”；北齐时的一篇《元会大享歌皇夏辞》中呼为“元春”；唐德宗李适《元日退朝观军仗归营》诗中谓之“元朔”

　　我国在发掘大汶口文化遗物中，发现一幅太阳从山颠升起，中间云烟缭绕的图画。经考证，这是我国最古老的“旦”字写法。后来，在殷商的青铜器铸铭上，又出现了被简化的“旦”的象形字。“旦”字是以圆圆的太阳来表示的。“日”下面的“一”字表示地平线，意为太阳从地平线上冉冉升起。

　　中国元旦历来指的是夏历（农历、阴历）正月初一。元是“初”、“始”的意思，旦指“日子”，元旦合称即是“初始的日子”，也就是一年的第一天。在汉语各地方言中有不同叫法，有叫“大年初一”的，有叫“大天初一”的，有叫“年初一”的，一般又叫“正月初一”。

　　元旦，《书·舜典》中叫“元日”，汉代崔瑗《三子钗铭》中叫“元正”；晋代庾阐《扬都赋》中称作“元辰”；北齐时的一篇《元会大享歌皇夏辞》中呼为“元春”；唐德宗李适《元日退朝观军仗归营》诗中谓之“元朔”。我国历代元旦的月日并不一致。夏代在正月初一，商代在十二月初一，周代在十一月初一，秦始皇统一六国后，又以十月初一日为元旦，自此历代相沿未改（《史记》）。汉武帝太初元年时，司马迁创立了“太初历”，这才又以正月初一为元旦，和夏代规定一样，所以又称“夏历”，一直沿用到辛亥革命。中华民国建立，孙中山为了“行夏正，所以顺农时；从西历，所以便统计”，定正月初一（元旦）为春节，而以西历（公历）1月1日为新年。

　　在当代，元旦指公元纪年的岁首第一天。自西历传入我国以后，元旦一词便专用于新年，传统的旧历年则称春节。公元19XX年，孙中山领导的辛亥革命，推翻了满清的统治，建立了中华民国。各省都督代表在南京开会，决定使用公历，把农历的正月初一叫做“春节”，把公历的1月1日叫做“元旦”。不过当时并未正式公布和命名。为了“行夏正，所以顺农时，从西历，所以便统计”，民国元年决定使用公历（实际使用是19XX年），并规定阳历（公历）1月1日为“新年”，但并不叫“元旦”。

　　今天所说的“元旦”，是新中国成立前夕的公元1949年9月27日，中国人民政治协商会议第一界全体会议决议：“中华人民共和国纪年采用公元纪年法”，即是我们所说的阳历，为了区别农历和阳历两个新年，又鉴于农历二十四节气中的“立春”恰在农历新年的前后，因此便把农历正月初一改称为“春节”，阳历一月一日定为“元旦”，至此，元旦才成为全国人民的欢乐节日。

　　最早的元旦由来大约在公元前五万年左右，古埃及人已由游牧改为农耕，定居在尼罗河两岸，他们的农业收成与尼罗河是否发生洪水有很大关系。古埃及人从长期的观察中发现，尼罗河泛滥的时间是有规律的，他们就把这个时间每次都记录在竹竿上，从中得知两次泛滥时间之间大约相隔365天；同时还发现，当尼罗河初涨的潮头来到今天开罗城附近的时候，也正好是太阳与天狼星同时从地平线上升起的时候。

　　于是，古埃及人便把这一天定为一年的开始。这是“元旦”最早的由来。

二 : 元旦的由来

元旦的由来

元旦”一词最早出现于《晋书》：“颛帝以孟夏正月为元，其实正朔元旦之春”的诗中。南北朝时，南朝萧子云的《介雅》诗：“四气新元旦，万寿初今朝。”的记载。宋代吴自牧《梦梁录》卷一“正月”条目：“正月朔日，谓之元旦，俗呼为新年。

最早称农历正月初一为“元旦”，“元” 是“初”、“始”的意思，“旦”指天明的时间，也通指白天。元旦合称即是“初始的日子”，即是一年开始的第一天。正月初一从哪日算起，在汉武帝以前也是很不统一的。因此，历代的元旦月、日也并不一致。夏朝的夏历以孟喜月(元月)为正月，商朝的殷历以腊月(十二月)为正月，周朝的周历以冬月(十一月)为正月。秦始皇统一中国后，又以阳春月(十月)为正月，即十月初一为元旦。汉武帝太初元年时，司马迁创立了“太初历”，才规定孟喜月(元月)为正月，把孟喜月的第一天(夏历的正月初一)称为元旦，一直沿用到清朝末年。但这是夏历，亦即农历或阴历，还不是我们今天所说的元旦。 西元1911年，孙中山领导的辛亥革命，推翻了清朝的统治，建立了中华民国。为了“行夏正，所以顺农时，从西历，所以便统计”，民国元年决定使用西历(实际使用是1912年)，并规定阳历(西历)1月1日为“新年”，但并不叫“元旦

1949年9月27日，中国人民政治协商会议第一界全体会议决议：“中华人民共和国纪年采用公元纪年法”，即是我们所说的阳历，为了区别农历和阳历两个新年，又鉴于农历二十四节气中的“立春”恰在农历新年的前后，因此便把农历正月初一改称为“春节”，阳历一月一日定为“元旦”，至此，元旦才成为全国人民的欢乐节日。

三 : 元旦由来 元旦的由来英文版

Yuandan is the first day of the lunar calendar. It is the day when the earth has circled the sun for one round and is beginning another circling. It represents a new beginning when people send off the old days and welcome the new ones. As the first day of the year, Yuandan has been considered to be the most important festival since the ancient times.

Customs

1. Kaisui(beginning of the year): According to the Chinese traditional custom, starting from haishi(9p.m. to 11p.m.)of the last evening of the twelfth lunar month, each family must prepare offering s to deities at the altar. At the same time, they too prepare food for the New Year day: The whole family will then stay awake together to attend to the year(called shou sui). After haishi, zishi(11p.m. to 1a.m.)will come, and this is the arrival of New Year(Yuandan). At this moment, people begin the celebration with fireworks. Vegetarian and sweet foods will then be placed are the altar for offerings, and incense be burned to welcome the deities. In the ancient times, it was believed that haishi connected the two years and thus was called kaisui.

At the same night, some families will follow the instruction in Tongshu and place preparing altar in the direction of the "fortune deity" during the "fortune time" to receive the deity. If the direction of the "fortune deity" is at the "ill position", people will choose to receive "happy deity" or "noble deity" instead.

2. There is an apparent difference in the custom of food taking on Yuandan between the Chinese in the northern and southern regions. The northern Chinese has the habit of taking jiao zi(dumpling made of flour with vegetable and meat wrapped inside). Some people may put a sweet or a coin inside jiao zi, hoping to have a sweet year after tasting the sweet and a wealthy year after tasting the coin. on the other hand, the southern Chinese have the taboo for killing on Yuandan. Therefore, they do not take meat in tee morning of Yuandan, so as to avoid bloodshed or mutual slaughter. In order to evade misfortune, they have the first meal of this day without meat. Instead, they take vegetarian food for the sake of virtue.

3. What is special during the New Year is that parents or elders will distribute red packets(ang pao or ya sui qian)to the children. People in the ancient times were more particular in giving away the red packets: the distribution took place on the eve of New Year so that the kids could suppress the past year and enter the New Year. Ya sui has the meaning of overcoming the unpredictable future. Representing the wishes for the healthy psychological growth of the children, ya sui qian symbolises the elders' hope to see their children overcome all the unpredictable elements brought by the "year".

4. There is an extraordinary number of taboos on Yuandan. Each place has its own customs of taboo. Here, we will mention only a few common taboos in Fujian Province, Guangdong Province and Southeast Asia:

In the past, people commonly believed that fortune was hidden in the house. So, w\sweeping of floor must be done in the direction moving inwards, and there was no clearance of rubbish at night. Particularly on the New Tear day, in order to keep fortune from flowing out, there was no sweeping. Some families kept this taboo until the fifth or even the fifteenth day. If anything was broken, the pieces were wrapped up in order not to let the fortune slip away and were disposed only the fifth day.

Yuandan(in more serious families, the period extends from the 1st to the 15th day) marks the new beginning. In the hope that New Year brings good beginning, people should utter neither unkind words nor vulgar language. Making noises, fighting, quarreling and especially weeping are avoided to deter misfortune. There are even taboos of taking medicine and having sneeze, for it is believed that they can lead to sickness throughout the year. Taboos of the past also concerned the use of knife and the breaking of things. If a thing was broken, the word "break" or any other word importing similar meaning was not used. Instead, words like "failing to the floor and blossoming like flowers" which delivered pleasant senses were used to suggest good connections.

On Yuandan, neither lending and nor giving of money to others is done so that there will be no out-flowing of money during the year. There is also the saying that if a male sleeps in the afternoon, his career will breakdown, and if a female has an afternoon nap, the kitchen will collapse.

5. Ancient rite: In the past, there was a rite called he zheng(proper greeting)during New Year. When a person paid a New Year visit to friends or relatives, he took along a piece of paper or card on which the name of the host was written wit Chinese brush. The receiver of this greeting card would normally paste it on the wall of his main hall to show his respect to and appreciation for the visitor. The quantity of greeting card received reflected the person's public relationship with others, while the names and status of the people who gave the greeting cards indicated the host's boundary of social network and standard of living. Nowadays, because of easy communication, convenient transportation system and wider social network, when people send their greetings they tend to follow the Western style. The greeting is now done by mail and even by email. Today, he zheng is done by simply bringing along red packets and food presents when making a visit.

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To be in line with the custom of to giving away money on the first day, families in some places do not pay New Year call to others. Instead, the whole family simply goes out to enjoy themselves or stayed at home for family happiness.

6. In the past, there was a superstition that when a person left his house in the New Year, he must take the correct first step. A particular person would look for the fortunate direction in accordance with the day, month and year of this birth basing on the explanation of Chinese calendar. On Yuan Dan, when a person stepped out of his house, he must go in the fortunate direction and avoid the unfortunate direction. Even people of less particularity also consulted Chinese calendar to find out where the fortunate directions and fierce deities were before the first step out of their houses.

Meaning

From the above mentioned customs, we can see that there are especially many taboos during Chinese New Year. On Yuan Dan in particular, there are more taboos on speech and behaviour than those on other ordinary days. Similarly, there are more activities in pursuit of good cause than usual. On probing the activities and taboos, we have no difficulty to understand that the theme behind is always related to fortune, wealth and goodness, and that people usually concern themselves with a good beginning for the year.

Some taboos may look superstitious on the surface, but they do produce efficacy. If we practise them circumspectively, they will yield practical results. For example, the prohibition of bad words, quarrel, weeping and crying, together with the emphasis on thinking positively even when things are broken, provide some normative rules for people to follow. This gives people the opportunity to mend their ways, to develop good attitudes, and to form a habit of thinking positively and looking at the good side of things. The prohibition of sweeping and disposing the rubbish in the first five days forces people to arrange their things and clear away the rubbish properly at the end of each year, so that no unwanted things will be carried forward to the new year. At the same time, the taboo also compels people to learn to be thrifty. This is because to prevent accumulated things from becoming rubbish, people must be careful in the use of any paper or other things, and thus avoid waste of things.

The avoidance of medicine and sneeze on the first day looks like a joke and is absurd as far as the patient is concerned. However, because of the taboos, people will be conscious enough to take serious care of their health during the windy and snowing season. Thus, they will avoid falling sick in the New Year and wasting away the precious spring hours.

Nowadays, people have abandoned the custom of bringing along greeting cards when they go for New Year house visits. However, Chinese Malaysians still maintain the habit of sending New Year greeting cards by post before the New Year.

There are even non-Chinese sending New Year greeting cared in English or Malay languages to their Chinese friends. Moreover, the Chinese like to use colourful New Year cared to decorate their houses, so as to strengthen the New Year atmosphere. Like the ancient days' greeting cards for he zheng which were displayed in the main hall, these modern New Year cards also reflect the social position of the persons who receive the cards. Thus, in the way, the ancient rite of he zheng has developed in Malaysia with a Malaysian colour.

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