春节是我国最盛大、最热闹的一个古老传统节日。俗称“过年”。按照我国农历，正月初一古称元日、元辰、元正、元朔、元旦等，俗称年初一，还有上日、正朝、三朔、三朝、三始、三元等别称，意即正月初一是年、月、日三者的开始。

　　春节，顾名思义就是春天的节日。春天来临，万象更新，新一轮播种和收获季节又要开始。 人们有足够的理由载歌载舞来迎接这个节日。于是，节前就在门脸上贴上红纸黄字的新年寄语。

　　春节的另一名称叫过年。“年”是什么呢？是一种为人们带来坏运气的想象中的动物。“年”一来。树木凋蔽，百草不生；“年”一“过”，万物生长，鲜花遍地。“年”如何才能过去呢？需用鞭炮轰 ，于是有了燃鞭炮的习俗。1993年，北京市人民政府颁布了禁放烟花爆竹的法律，使这一沿续了几百年的习俗成为历史。

　　春节是个亲人团聚的节日，这一点和西方的圣诞节很相似。离家的孩子这时要不远千里回到父母家里。真正过年的前一夜叫“除夕”，又叫“团圆夜”，“团年”。传统的庆祝活动则从除夕一直持续到正月十五元宵节。喜庆气氛要持续一个月。 正月初一前有祭灶、祭祖、 扫除污秽。三十日要贴门神、对联、挂旗、吃饺子、放鞭炮，除夕“守岁”等 仪 式；正月初一晚辈向长辈拜年，然后至亲友家贺年。亲友第一次见面时，说些“恭贺新喜”、“恭喜发财”、“恭喜”、“过年好”等话，互相祝贺。

　　The Origin of Chinese New Year

　　The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Begining of Spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coodination with the changes of Nature). Its origin is too old to be traced. Several explanations are hanging around. All agree, however, that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese solely means "year", was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year.

　　One legend goes that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one bite. People were very scared. One day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to subdue Nian. To Nian he said, "I hear say that you are very capable, but can you swallow the other beasts of prey on earth instead of people who are by no means of your worthy opponents?" So, it did swallow many of the beasts of prey on earth that also harrassed people and their domestic animals from time to time.

　　After that, the old man disappeared riding the beast Nian. He turned out to be an immortal god. Now that Nian is gone and other beasts of prey are also scared into forests, people begin 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 then on, the tradition of observing the conquest of Nian is carried on from generation to generation. The term "Guo Nian", which may mean "Survive the Nian" becomes today "Celebrate the (New) Year" as the word "guo" in Chinese having both the meaning of "pass-over" and "observe". The custom of putting up red paper and firing fire-crackers to scare away Nian should it have a chance to run loose is still around. However, people today have long forgotten why they are doing all this, except that they feel the color and the sound add to the excitement of the celebration.