Spring Festival, the Chinese Lunar New Year, commonly known as "New Year", "New Year's Day", etc., also known as "Spending the New Year Festival", is a big folk festival that integrates the removal of the old, worship of gods and ancestors, praying for blessings and warding off evil spirits, reunion of family and friends, entertainment and food.

The Chinese New Year has a long history and evolved from the ancient rituals of praying for blessings and sacrifices at the beginning of the year. The origin of all things is heaven, and the origin of human beings is their ancestors. Praying for blessings and offering sacrifices, honoring heaven and worshipping ancestors is a manifestation of compliance with the original heart. The origin of the Spring Festival contains profound cultural connotations and carries a rich historical and cultural heritage in its development. During the Spring Festival, there are various activities to celebrate the New Year with strong local characteristics all over the country.

 In the early days of observing the stars, people determined the time based on the rotation of the Big Dipper, and "the handle of the Big Dipper returns to the Yin position" was the beginning of the year. When the handle of the seven stars of the Big Dipper rotated once and returned to the Yin position, spring returned to the earth, everything was renewed, and a new cycle began. In traditional farming societies, the beginning of spring was of great significance, so a large number of festivals and cultures related to the beginning of the year were derived. Although different calendars have led to different dates for the festivals at the beginning of the year, the framework of the festivals and many of the folk customs have been inherited throughout history. In modern times, the Spring Festival is celebrated on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, but the New Year does not end until at least the fifteenth day of the first month.

The Chinese New Year is the first of a hundred festivals, and the Spring Festival is the grandest traditional festival of the Chinese nation. Influenced by Chinese culture, some countries and regions in the world also have the custom of celebrating the Spring Festival. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 20 countries and regions have designated Chinese New Year as a legal holiday for the whole or some cities under their jurisdiction. The Spring Festival, together with the Qingming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, are known as the four major traditional Chinese festivals.

The Spring Festival folklore was approved by the State Council to be included in the first national list of intangible cultural heritage.

In traditional farming societies, the beginning of spring was of great significance and gave rise to a large number of festivals and cultures associated with it. Although the separation of solar terms and festivals has occurred since then due to the popularization of the yin-yang combined calendar system in the historical development, many festivals and folklore have been preserved. The Spring Festival evolved from the rituals of praying for blessings at the beginning of the year. In ancient times, people held rituals at the beginning of the year, when spring returned to the earth and everything was renewed, to remember the benevolence of the gods of heaven and earth and their ancestors, to drive away evil spirits and avoid disasters, and to pray for blessings. Although it is difficult for us to know the situation of the ancient rituals, we can still find some remnants of the ancient customs in the festival rituals of later generations. For example, some areas in Lingnan have inherited the rituals of worshipping on the first day of the new year and the grand rituals of worshipping the gods and ancestors and exorcizing evil spirits to bring good fortune during the new year, which shows a little trace of the first day of the year in the ancient times. The origin and development of the Spring Festival is a process of gradual formation, subtle improvement and popularization. As an important part of traditional Chinese culture, Spring Festival culture carries the profound Chinese cultural heritage and records the rich and colorful social life of ancient people.

Traditional festival rituals and customary activities are important elements of festivals, carrying a rich and colorful cultural heritage of festivals. The Festival of the Ages is an ancient festival in China and one of the most important festivals of the year. In the course of its historical development, it has integrated a variety of folklore from many places into one, and formed a number of fixed customs and habits, many of which have been handed down to the present day. These activities can be roughly summarized as follows: worshiping the gods to comply with the time of the heaven; venerating ancestors to maintain family ties; exorcising evil spirits to seek peace; and relaxing through recreation. The Spring Festival is the grandest traditional festival of the Chinese nation, which not only centrally embodies the ideological beliefs, ideals and aspirations, life and entertainment, and cultural psychology of the Chinese nation, but is also a carnival-like display of prayers for blessings and calamities, and dietary and recreational activities.

During the Spring Festival, a variety of activities are held throughout the country to celebrate the New Year, with differences in the content or details of the customs depending on the regional culture, resulting in strong regional characteristics. The celebrations during the Spring Festival are extremely rich and varied, including lion dances, piaose, dragon dances, deity procession, temple fairs, flower streets, lanterns, gongs and drums, flag parades, fireworks, praying for blessings, stilt walkers, dry-boat races, and Yangko dance, etc. The Spring Festival is a time for people all over the world to celebrate the Chinese New Year, post spring couplets, celebrate New Year's Eve, eat New Year's dinner and do New Year's greetings, but due to the differences in local customs, they are unique in their subtleties. Spring Festival folklore is in various forms, rich in content, and is the essence of the Chinese people's life and culture of the concentrated display.

The Spring Festival is the day to get rid of the old and bring in the new. Although the Spring Festival falls on the first day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, the activities of the Spring Festival do not end on the first day of the first month. From the end of the year, people are busy preparing for it: making offerings, sweeping the dust, purchasing new year's goods, putting up couplets, bathing and washing their hair, putting up lanterns and colorful decorations, and so on, all of which share a common theme, that is "letting go of the old and welcoming the new". The Spring Festival is a festival of joy and harmony, family reunion, and a carnival that expresses people's desire for happiness and freedom and is a permanent spiritual pillar. The Spring Festival is also a time to worship ancestors and pray for blessings. Sacrifice is a kind of faith activity, which is created by human beings in their ancient survival activities, expecting to live in harmony with the nature of heaven and earth.

The Spring Festival is also a festival of entertainment and revelry for the people. At the advent of the New Year, firecrackers and fireworks fill the sky, and various activities to celebrate the New Year reach a climax, such as bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new year. On the morning of the first day of the new year, each family burns incense to honor heaven and earth, sacrifices to ancestors, pays New Year's greetings to elders in turn, and then sends blessings to friends and relatives of the same clan. After the first day of the year, a variety of colorful recreational activities are carried out, adding a rich and festive atmosphere to the New Year's Eve. The warm atmosphere of the festival not only overflows in every household, but also fills the streets and alleys everywhere. During the New Year period, the city is filled with lanterns, the streets are full of tourists, and the Spring Festival is not really over until after the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. Therefore, the festival, which combines blessing, celebration and entertainment, has become the grandest festival of the Chinese nation.

Chinese New Year is the most important and culturally significant festival in China, and it is also an important driving force for industrial economy and domestic consumption. With the rapid growth of the national economy and the increasing disposable income of the residents, the consumption of the Spring Festival has developed from the traditional purchase of New Year's goods to festive products and services such as New Year's greetings, crafts, leisure and entertainment, etc., which have the characteristics of the times. During the Spring Festival, the large-scale flow of people, finance, materials, information and art has led to the overall prosperity of culture, commerce, transportation, tourism, telecommunications, finance, catering and other industries, forming a unique "Spring Festival economy".