The Chunjie Festival，popularly called the Grand New Year’s Day, enjoys the timeless fashion despite its long history. It has been established as the beginning of the new year for over 2000 years, but at the same time it has been called the Chunjie Festival for less than 100 years．Now，the Chunjie Festival is celebrated in much the same way as in the past．The firecrackers，after being banned for more than a dozen years，has returned to the folk life and graced the otherwise cheerless night with their crisp sounds on the eve of fhe Iunar new year．The return of the fire recrackers is not so much a victory of folk customs as a victory of a rational society．The change from a total ban to a limited ban of the firecrackers reflects the advance of political civilization．
In June of 2005, several central government offices issued a directive of carrying forward the excellent nationaI culture through traditional festivals．It is one of the important“people oriented”measures by the central government to promote the construction of the Chinese national culture and a harmonious society．Different from ordinary holidays，the traditional festivals have unique culturaI connotations to themselves．In that sense, the traditionaI festivals are an irreplaceable cultural heritage．The Chunjie Festival，the most important festival in China, is especially rich in its social significance.
The Chunjie Festival is a Vital Force of NationaI Cohesion.
The Chunjie Festival(the first day of the first lunar month) was established in the Han Dynasty as a great festival at the beginning of the year. In the first year of the reign of Taichu of the Han Dynasty(104 BC) Emperor Wudi issued a new calendar, confirming the first day of the first lunar month as the beginning of the year and this calendar has been used for over 2000 years till today in China. The Chunjie vacation in the first lunar month has been set as a grand festival celebrated all over the country as described in historical books:”Officials and ordinary people celebrate the festival in different ways.” The various ceremonial activities help enhance and renew the relationships within the families and the society. The traditional Chunjie Festival, as a key festival in the seasonal ceremonial system features an abundance of folk customs.
Though the Chunjie Festival was once banned in the firsl years of the Republic of China and abandoned in the period of the “Cultural Revolution”, it is still a critical annual event in people‘s lives because it caters to the psychological needs of the people.
The Chunjie Festival which carries the profound accumulation of history，represents the concentrated passion of millions of Chinese people and holds an important position in their minds．“People，rich or poor，come back home for the Lunar new year．” In the days around the Chunjie Festival，the transportation routes are always heavy with passengers. The great movemenlof billions of people between the cities and the countryside has been a unique view of the Chunjie Festival. The people living and working in a strange city away from theirnative places are eager to go back home for the festival.