Why did Japan abolish the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival？

Original global intelligence agent, global intelligence agent

Japan abolished the lunar calendar

Author | Blue Sky and Clear Away

Editor | ｜Thomas

The custom of celebrating the Lunar New Year (Spring Festival) originated in China and spread to neighboring countries with the strength of ancient China. Up to now, the Spring Festival has become a common festival of China, South Korea, North Korea and Vietnam, which are "cultural circles of Chinese characters".

Times have changed. Chinese characters have withdrawn from the social life of the Korean Peninsula and Viet Nam, but the Spring Festival and many festivals originating in China have been preserved to this day.

Japan still retains a large number of Chinese characters in its writing system, but in 1873 it abolished the lunar calendar, which has been used for thousands of years, and switched to the solar calendar (modern Gregorian calendar). Since then, the Japanese no longer celebrate the Lunar New Year.

▲ Vietnamese Spring Festival

The lunar calendar has been abolished, but the Japanese custom of celebrating the New Year has not disappeared. Celebrating the New Year is still an important activity for the Japanese people. After changing the calendar, Japan took the Gregorian New Year (January 1st) as the fixed date of "Japanese Spring Festival", which has been nearly a century and a half. Although the modern Gregorian calendar is implemented in China today, the lunar calendar and lunar festivals are still preserved.

So, what are the deep-seated considerations for Japan to abolish the Lunar New Year and the Lunar New Year? What are the traditional marks of the Japanese Spring Festival?

▲ Japanese-style "buy new year"

* For the convenience of readers, the "Spring Festival" in this article refers to the Lunar New Year, not the "Japanese Spring Festival".

First, the common festival of Chinese character cultural circle

Calendar is a calculation method to determine the length of time unit such as year, month and day. The current calendar system is mainly divided into three types: solar calendar, lunar calendar and yin-yang calendar.

The solar calendar takes the sun as the reference, that is, the earth revolves around the sun for one year. Most of the year is divided into 12 months, with a length of about 365 days.

At present, the modern Gregorian calendar (Gregorian calendar), which is widely used in the world, is a typical solar calendar. The Iranian calendar used in Iran, the julian calendar promulgated during the Roman Empire and widely used in Europe before the 17th century are all representatives of the solar calendar.

▲ The solar calendar is based on the sun.

The lunar calendar takes the moon as the reference, and the moon revolves around the earth for one month. The ancients judged whether the moon revolves for one week by observing the changes of the lunar surface (that is, the phase of the moon).

The lunar calendar is also divided into 12 months a year, with a length of only about 354 days. The Islamic calendar widely used in the Middle East is a typical lunar calendar.

The lunar calendar of Yin and Yang defines the length of the year based on the revolution of the earth around the sun, and the month and date depend on the moon. Although the lunar calendar in China is called the lunar calendar, in fact, the lunar calendar in China is a typical combination of yin and yang.

▲ Different moon phases

Calendars are accompanied by corresponding festivals, such as Christmas on December 25 in the western calendar. The birth of the lunar calendar in China is closely related to the ancient farming society, and the 24 solar terms are derived, and the custom of the Spring Festival is related to it.

The embryonic form of the Lunar New Year appeared as early as the Xia Dynasty. The definition of "year" in Shuo Wen Jie Zi is "Gu Shu Ye". The definition of "Year" in the Biography of Guliang is further refined. "All the grains are ripe for a year, and all the grains are ripe for a great year", and "Year" has changed from a simple time unit to a festival.

▲ Oracle Bone Inscriptions in "Year" is a person carrying mature food.

The Qin and Han Dynasties were the earliest unified feudal dynasty in China’s history. The taichu calendar, which was written by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, "took the first month as the beginning of the year", and the custom of Chinese New Year continued to develop and improve. With the expansion of the imperial territory, the custom of Chinese New Year spread from the hinterland of the Central Plains to the surrounding areas.

The ancient Korean Peninsula was closely related to China in politics and culture, and China’s lunar calendar, Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival were introduced into the Korean Peninsula. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Silla Dynasty, which ruled the peninsula, drew lessons from taichu calendar and formulated its own almanac, and accepted the China Lunar Calendar and many festivals in all directions.

▲ Korean Spring Festival

Northern Viet Nam belonged to China before the 10th century. With the deepening of sinicization, festivals such as the Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival also have a far-reaching impact here.

Influenced by the geographical environment, the Spring Festival in Korean Peninsula and Viet Nam is different from that in China. The Spring Festival is called "Old Truth" on the Korean Peninsula, and the Korean nation is still white. Most of the Spring Festival couplets and lucky money posted are made of white paper. In ancient times, rice cakes and pickles were the staple foods of the New Year.

▲ Vietnam five fruit plate

The latitude of Vietnam is low, and the custom of Spring Festival is similar to that of Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan-Guizhou regions. Five-fruit bowls made of bananas and oranges, Vietnamese spring rolls and zongzi are even more essential foods for Vietnamese New Year’s Eve dinner.

Due to the barrier of the sea, the connection between Japan and China was relatively weak. Until the 7th century, China’s national strength was at its peak and its culture was prosperous in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Japan sent envoys to China, and Japan was brought into the cultural circle of Chinese characters. The custom of Spring Festival and New Year came to Japan.

▲ Japanese envoy to Tang Dynasty

In 692 AD, Japan began to implement the Yuan Jia Li, which was edited by China during the Liu and Song Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, and the customs of the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival were introduced to Japan.

In 705 AD, in order to dispel the plague, the Japanese emperor held a "mourning ceremony" in the palace with reference to Zhou Li. The Japanese imitated the "Nuo" that existed in China in the Spring and Autumn Period. This ceremony was originally prepared for the arrival of the Lunar New Year, to drive away ghosts and pray for peace for one year.

▲ Daxie

By the 12th century A.D., the court Nuo ceremony began to decline. Folk furniture is mostly held in monasteries, and it is still in full swing, becoming a part of the preparation for the Spring Festival. In the 15th century, the custom of "changing treasure beans" in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces of China was introduced to Japan, which further simplified the Nuo, and most Japanese civilians changed to scatter beans to exorcise ghosts, which continues to this day.

Like Chinese’s offering sacrifices to the kitchen god, the God of Wealth and other gods on the New Year’s Day, the ancient Japanese also prayed at shrines and temples during the Spring Festival.

▲ Sprinkle beans to exorcise ghosts

After rice cultivation was introduced into Japan, the clan ties based on labor production became stronger and stronger. On the occasion of the Spring Festival, people will have family reunions, offer sacrifices to their ancestors and talk about family ties. "Japan’s Year-old Chronicle" records that "tonight is a night away … family handmaiden, having fun with each other, seeing off the old and welcoming the new".

Since the end of the 12th century, the Japanese samurai class has mastered the real power of the country, and the imperial court in Kyoto has become a political vase. The powerful Yuanlai Dynasty forced the Emperor to appoint himself as the general of conquering foreign countries, and established Kamakura, tokugawa era and Japan.

▲ Kamakura shogunate structure

Despite the political turmoil, the status of the Spring Festival is gradually fixed in Japan. Chinese customs have been localized and transformed, forming the Japanese Spring Festival.

Generally speaking, the custom of Spring Festival is based on the powerful national strength of ancient China and exported to neighboring countries as a representative of cultural soft power. Japan’s connection with China is not as good as that of Vietnam and the Korean Peninsula, and it has not fully accepted all China customs. However, Japan strictly follows the lunar calendar, and its position in the Spring Festival is unshakable. From the 7th century to the 19th century, the Lunar New Year influenced Japanese society for more than a thousand years, witnessing and promoting the development of ancient Japanese society.

▲ The Japanese Spring Festival is closely linked to the lunar calendar.

Second, the Meiji Restoration, Japan abandoned the Lunar New Year

In 1573, the Muromachi shogunate, the second shogunate in Japanese history, perished in the dispute of the Warring States Period in Japan. In order to unify Japan, vassals from all over the world set off a larger-scale war.

At the same time of frequent wars in Japan, Europe is groping its way forward in the long Middle Ages. In 1582, Pope Julius XIII promulgated the Gregorian calendar (the current Gregorian calendar), and the julian calendar promulgated during the Roman Empire was abolished because of the increase in errors. European and American countries gradually changed to the Gregorian calendar in the following centuries, and the Gregorian calendar will be spread to the whole world with the rise of European and American countries.

▲ Well, I’m a little 13th.

In the 17th century, East Asia is undergoing a sky-shaking change. In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, ending the Warring States Period, which lasted for a hundred years. On the other side of China, the Ming and Qing dynasties changed in 1644, and the Manchu people in Baishan Blackwater became the masters of the Chinese empire.

From 862, the Japanese began to use the Xuanming Calendar compiled by China in the Tang Dynasty, which had been used for about 800 years by the 17th century. As the error increased and the Tokugawa shogunate thought that China had been ruled by barbarians and could no longer be regarded as a cultural power, Japan began to compile its own calendar. In 1685, a Japanese astronomer, Haruhai Sechuan, compiled the first "domestic almanac" in Japanese history-Zhen Xiang Li.

▲ The location of Tokugawa shogunate-Edo

At the end of the 17th century, China, Japan and North Korea all adopted a closed-door policy to prevent rebellion and the infiltration of external forces. Just as Europeans were opening up global trade, East Asia closed its doors to the outside world and gradually fell behind in its development.

After Zhen Xiang Li, Japan successively edited Bao Li Li and Kuan Zheng Li. By 1844 (the 15th year of natural forest protection in Japan), on the basis of combining the latest achievements of western astronomy, Japan issued a new version of the almanac "Natural Forest Protection Calendar". Unexpectedly, this almanac, which took great efforts to complete, was swept into the pile of old paper after only 29 years of use.

▲ Japanese historical stages

On February 13th, 1854, it was the 16th day of the traditional lunar month, and the festive atmosphere of the New Year had not completely dissipated, and there was still a feeling of jubilation in Edo City (now Tokyo).

Suddenly, several black American warships, led by American navy general Matthew Perry, sailed into Edo Bay. Perry, backed by force, forced Japan to sign the unequal Kanagawa Treaty. Russia and other countries are also eyeing Japan, and the cloud of becoming a colony has shrouded this island country.

▲ Perry

People of insight in Japan saw through the decay of the shogunate and determined to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. Changzhou, Satsuma and other vassals, which were at odds with the shogunate politically, became the base camp of the anti-curtain faction. The troops sent by the rebels defeated the shogunate army in the battle of Bird Feather and Fujian, and the Tokugawa shogunate fell. The fall of the curtain faction announced that "the great government was returned", and Emperor Meiji, who had just ascended the throne, went to the front desk.

The threat of western invasion led to the Meiji Restoration, and at the same time, China was also carrying out the Westernization Movement. However, the Westernization Movement did not touch the feudal ruling system of the Qing Dynasty, and the reform focused on military and other fields, and the breadth and depth of the reform were not as thorough as that of the Meiji Restoration.

▲ Emperor Meiji

Emperor Meiji, who restored certain powers, was extremely supportive of the reform, which covered many fields such as politics, military affairs, culture and education. Japan’s feudal rule order was broken, production in light industry and other fields flourished, and social atmosphere gradually became civilized.

On November 21, 1872 (October 1, the fifth year of the Meiji period in Tianbaoli), the calendar-awarding trading company established in May of that year obtained the right to sell official calendars, and is selling calendars for the new year in major cities. It has been more than four years since the Meiji Restoration, and the Japanese still use the traditional calendar.

▲ Calendar used in Japan

At the same time as the sales of the almanac were booming, Akira Tsumoto, who was the official official of Taisho, played "Abolishing the Tianbao Calendar and Implementing the Solar Calendar" to the Emperor.

Sakamoto Akira said that the national finance in the early Meiji Restoration was very tight. Limited funds are allocated to various reform undertakings, and the treasury, which is not rich, is about to bottom out.

During the Tokugawa shogunate period, most samurai got rice as an "annual salary" according to their status. After the Meiji Restoration, the samurai class was deprived of its privileges. In order to appease these professional soldiers, the new Meiji government still paid them salaries, but cash replaced rice and the payment method was changed to "monthly payment system".

▲ samurai class

Akira Tsumoto believes that if the old calendar is implemented, it is necessary to pay samurai and other civil servants a monthly salary of 13 months from time to time. This has to say a special problem in the calendar-setting leap.

A year’s time is not an integer, no matter what kind of calendar, there is a difference in time calculation. The lunar calendar in China uses a leap month to make up the time, and there will be 13 months every few years. Most solar calendars adopt leap days, that is, adding one day in individual months to make up for the time, such as February 29 in the Gregorian calendar. In this case, the month will not increase, just pay 12 months’ salary.

▲ Japanese officials in the 19th century.

Emperor Meiji accepted the suggestion and, taking advantage of the fact that the Lunar New Year was coming to an end, on December 2 of that year (the Lunar New Year), he issued a notice of Taizheng official to abandon the Tianbao calendar. The Tianbao calendar (lunar calendar) came to an abrupt end on December 2. The next day, the date changed from December 3 of the lunar calendar to January 1 of the solar calendar.

This move by the Japanese government not only saved the monthly salary of civil servants (including the samurai class) in the 13th month, but even the monthly salary in December of the lunar calendar was denied by the government in the name of "no salary will be paid after only two days in that month".

▲ Before the cabinet system was established, Minister Taisheng was the No.1 civil servant.

The people were caught off guard by the sudden abandonment of the old calendar, and the calendar issuing company suffered heavy losses. The old official calendars sold became a pile of waste paper, and the solar calendar official calendars could only be re-made. In order to compensate the merchants’ losses, Emperor Meiji approved to extend the time limit of the official sales calendar of the trading company for 10 years.

Fukuzawa Yukichi, an important Japanese enlightenment thinker in modern times, heard the news that the government issued a new calendar, and regardless of his physical illness, he wrote "Change the Calendar". Explain the new calendar to the people, and explain the importance of changing the calendar for Qiang Bing, a rich Japanese country, to realize the dream of leaving Asia and entering Europe.

▲ Fukuzawa Yukichi

At this point, in order to alleviate the financial pressure, Japan officially abolished the lunar calendar that had been implemented for thousands of years in 1873. The Spring Festival, based on the old calendar, disappeared. Japan redefined all festivals with the new calendar, and the original New Year on the first day of the first month became the New Year on January 1.

Thousands of years of habits cannot be completely changed by a single decree. For quite some time, the Japanese people continued the custom of celebrating the holidays on the lunar calendar, and Japan also marked the corresponding lunar calendar below the official calendar. However, with the deepening of the Meiji Restoration, leaving Asia and entering Europe became a broad consensus in Japanese society, and the lunar calendar gradually disappeared in Japanese society.

▲ Japan that "leaves Asia and enters Europe"

Third, start a new Japanese New Year

In 1895, Japan won the Sino-Japanese War. The Qing dynasty not only lost the war, but also abolished the suzerain-vassal relationship with Korea. Japan’s national pride has been further enhanced, and cutting with backward East Asian social traditions has become a strong trend in Japanese society.

In 1898, Japan adjusted its calendar. Since the abandonment of the lunar calendar in 1873, the solar calendar has been implemented in Japan for more than 20 years. However, Japan has adopted its own solar calendar, which is not completely consistent with the Gregorian calendar commonly used in the West.

▲ Sino-Japanese War

On May 11th, 1898, Emperor Meiji issued Imperial Decree No.90, replacing the calendar implemented in Japan with the Gregorian calendar, which was completely consistent with the calendars of western countries. This is the "leap year event" in Japanese history.

By 1910, Japan had annexed the Korean peninsula. In the same year, the Japanese official calendar completely canceled the marking of the lunar date, because celebrating the Lunar New Year was regarded as a symbol of backward countries by many Japanese at that time, and celebrating the New Year on the Gregorian New Year’s Day became the mainstream of Japanese society.

Only in Ryukyu Islands and some remote villages have the custom of Lunar New Year been preserved, while the Japanese-occupied Korean Peninsula and Taiwan Province were not inhabited by Yamato people, and most of them persisted in the Lunar New Year.

▲ The Japanese army occupied the Korean peninsula.

After the defeat of World War II, Japanese society accepted the transformation and influence of the United States, and the imprint of the Lunar New Year was further diluted. Neighboring countries such as China and South Korea also adopt the Gregorian calendar, while retaining the lunar calendar and continuing the custom of the Spring Festival. With the rise of Japan’s economy, the way to celebrate the Japanese New Year has gradually taken shape.

The Japanese New Year moved the original Spring Festival to the Gregorian New Year, and now it has become the consensus of the Japanese to celebrate the New Year on January 1. The Lunar New Year is called the "Spring Festival Festival Festival Festival", which is hard to find except in some areas of Wakayama, Okinawa and other counties and Chinese residential areas.

▲ Spring Festival Festival Festival

Every year around December 26th of the Gregorian calendar, the annual flavor of Japan begins to appear. Shops that have just removed their Christmas costumes immediately put on Japanese New Year’s colorful costumes, and every household is busy. People will hang "note ropes" at the door to drive away disasters, and prepare mirror cakes made of rice cakes and oranges at home.

Put pine on both sides of the door, or hang pine branches in front of the door. This custom was introduced to Japan in the Tang Dynasty, and "Song" is similar to "Shi" in Japanese, so the Japanese pray for the gods to protect their family.

▲ Mensong

The pronunciation of "nine" and "bitter" in Japanese is similar. On this day, people choose to let go of the 29th and finish all the preparations before the New Year on December 30th.

December 31st is called "Big Bad Day", which is similar to New Year’s Eve in China. On this night, the Japanese will also "keep watch", and the whole family will sit around and watch the annual "Red and White Song Festival" (which started in 1951 and has a function similar to the China Spring Festival Gala), waiting for the arrival of the New Year.

▲ Red and white songs

On the occasion of the New Year, the elders will give the younger generation "Nianyu", which is similar to China’s lucky money. Many places in Japan still have the custom of drinking Tu Su wine in the New Year.

Japanese New Year’s Eve includes rice cake soup cooked with vegetables, fish and shrimp, and a bowl of buckwheat noodles. This custom originated in the Tokugawa shogunate period. The slender buckwheat noodles symbolize longevity, and the good life is as long as noodles. And soba noodles are easy to break, meaning to say goodbye to the troubled past.

▲ Nianyue soba noodles

After 12 o’clock, people will gather in nearby temples and shrines for the "first visit", that is, the first visit to the New Year. People gathered to ring the Brahma bells in the temple and pray for peace and happiness in the new year. Large monasteries, such as Sensoji Temple in Tokyo and East Honganji in Kyoto, will have endless queues.

Japan celebrates the New Year on January 1st of the Gregorian calendar, which is called New Year’s Day in China, but it plays the role of New Year’s Day in Japan. People donate incense money in temples to worship the Seven Fortune Gods.

▲ Bell ringer

The Spring Festival has been attached to Japan for thousands of years, and China almanac was used by Japan from 862 to 1685. After using the local calendar for two centuries, Japan abolished the lunar calendar in 1873. However, the notes of the lunar calendar have remained for about 40 years, and the traditional New Year customs have also been preserved, but they have been moved to the Gregorian New Year’s Day.

The dates of Chinese and Japanese New Year celebrations are staggered because of the different calendars, but the people’s expectations for a better life are the same. The festive atmosphere is full of people’s endless hopes for the future.

▲ Pray for a happy New Year.

Long-term author | Blue sky and clear distance

A veteran lover of history

Editor in charge | ｜Thomas

Graduate of London School of Economics and Political Science | Editor-in-Chief of Global Intelligence

—(End of full text)—

This article is the original content of "Global Intelligence Agent"

Unauthorized reprinting is prohibited.

Welcome and share in the circle of friends and friends.

More good articles, please poke.

Original title: "Japan, why did you abolish the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival? 》

Read the original text