New Year’s Day is known as yuándàn 元旦 in Chinese, literally meaning ‘the first morning (of the year)’.
There is little dispute that yuán 元 generally means ‘beginning’. Therefore, yuánnián元年 means the first year, yuányuè 元月 the first month, yuánxún 元旬 the first ten days of a month, yuánxiōng 元兄 the eldest brother, yuánpèi 元配 or yuánqī 元妻 the first wife…
It is important to remember that, however, 元 may sometimes mean dà 大 [large; important; very; large amount of]. In the Book of Change (I Ching), whilst yuánjí元吉 may refer to an auspicious start, it also means great auspiciousness (大吉).
The meaning of dàn旦 is morning. It is an interesting character because it is highly pictorial – the sun (日) above the earth (一), symbolising a rising sun and hence morning. In Chinese characters, the horizontal line is often a representation of the earth.
The picture captured in this character, in fact, is also exactly the image for the 35th hexagram (entitled Jin 晉) in the Book of Change (I Ching), meaning ‘going forward’ (晉者、進也), for sunshine enables development.
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