Spring Festival is the Chinese Lunar New Year, a festival for the Chinese nation to welcome spring. Chinese people have regarded "Nian" as a natural time sequence and cultural festival for production and life for at least three thousand years. The festival customs system formed around the Spring Festival reflects the Chinese people's understanding of astronomy, phenology, and human activities and their corresponding relationships, including traditional beliefs, folk etiquette, food and entertainment, literature and art, and other aspects. It carries the wisdom and aesthetic pursuit of Chinese people, embodies their moral standards and patriotism, and is an important spiritual bond for maintaining national unity and ethnic solidarity. Having money or not, going home for the Chinese New Year "is the simplest and most authentic portrayal of this emotional cohesion. On December 4, 2024, UNESCO included "Spring Festival - Social Practice of Chinese People Celebrating Traditional New Year" in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This is not only a respect and appreciation for China's excellent traditional culture, but also a recognition of the concept of a community of shared destiny for mankind to create a better future. The Civilization Roots of Spring Festival: From Sacrificial Ceremonies to National Festivals. Spring Festival is a festival form formed in the long-term interaction between Chinese agricultural civilization, patriarchal society, and national governance. Its core function is to construct order and maintain connections. In China, a traditional agricultural country, festivals and sacrificial activities are closely related. The Spring Festival originated from the grand ceremony at the end of the year and the beginning of the year. The Chinese ancestors regarded "Nian" as the time point for crop harvest, and through rituals of worshipping the heavens and ancestors, thanked nature for its gifts and prayed for a bountiful harvest in the coming year. The cycle of "year" corresponds to the planting of crops, with spring sowing, summer long, autumn harvest, and winter storage, with both life and death, beginning and end. The Spring Festival has become a time marker for the change of seasons. At the end of a year's work, people rest and summarize. This time concept, which is in line with the natural rhythm, has made "year-end reunion" a life habit passed down from generation to generation in China, forming a common psychology of "no matter where you are, you will return at the end of the year". In traditional Chinese society, the family is the core unit, and the essence of Spring Festival ceremonies such as ancestor worship, reunion dinner, and New Year's greetings is the practice of maintaining patriarchal order. People confirm an individual's position in the family lineage and maintain the stability and development of the family through the worship and remembrance of their ancestors. After the Six Dynasties, ancestor worship on the first day of the New Year has become a routine ritual in the family. From preparation, production to sharing together, a reunion dinner is a process of communication between family members, as well as with the gods and ancestors related to the family. It not only expresses gratitude for the care of the gods and ancestors, expresses the sentiment of cherishing the future, but also conveys ethical and moral values, and strengthens blood ties and kinship. The custom of paying New Year's greetings consolidates the network of relationships through generational etiquette and interpersonal exchanges, updating the ethical relationships of families, neighbors, communities, and relationships with ancestors and gods from near to far, from inside to outside, and achieving cultural identity in an orderly life. Since Emperor Wu of Han issued the "Taichu Calendar", the New Year has been set on the first day of the first lunar month, and has been passed down through generations. By the Tang and Song dynasties, the customs of the Spring Festival had basically taken shape, and during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the tradition of "officials and people celebrating together" was formed. The Spring Festival gradually developed from a local custom to a national holiday. The state has transformed the Spring Festival from a traditional lunar festival into a legally recognized public holiday with modern national symbolic significance by unifying the start of the new year and regulating festival customs. This continuity and unity of civilization have been continuously sublimated and consolidated in the long-term inheritance and development of the common historical traditions and cultural life of all ethnic groups in China, thus becoming a strong bond that transcends geography and ethnic ties, unites the Chinese people, and deepens the emotional identity of "we are one family". In the annual cycle of time, the Spring Festival not only absorbs excellent cultures from various ethnic groups, but also provides a platform for communication and exchange between different regions and ethnic groups, enhancing recognition and forming consensus through periodic interpretation. Cultural symbols of the Spring Festival: From the manifestation of meaning to the gathering of people's hearts, from the twelfth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, it forms a cultural rhythm of busy New Year, Chinese New Year, New Year greetings, and New Year's greetings. It combines time, space, and natural ecological changes, combines old traditional customs with new elements of life, and constructs a complete and orderly narrative language and symbol system, allowing everyone to gain identity recognition and emotional resonance in collective ceremonies and every family in national construction, carrying the common ideals and expectations of the Chinese nation. The beginning of a new era, everything is renewed. ”The year is a time point of transition between the old and the new, and the Spring Festival means bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new. This renewal allows Chinese people to find the courage and hope to embrace the future. The folk song goes, "On the 23rd, offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God." The Kitchen God is responsible for managing the stoves of various households. People offer sacrifices such as stove candy, stove cakes, dishes, and the grass needed for the Kitchen God to ride horses in heaven, hoping that he will "speak good deeds in heaven and return to the palace to bring good luck". On the 24th, sweep the house. Every household cleans the courtyard, posts couplets, hangs New Year paintings, and decorates the door to welcome the Chinese New Year. Amidst the sound of firecrackers, bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, and wearing new clothes to express new wishes, these customs that emerged in the Han Dynasty and have lasted for thousands of years convey the Chinese people's concept of actively striving for progress and jointly pursuing a better future. Reunion is the theme for Chinese people to celebrate the New Year. A reunion dinner is a concrete representation of family unity. No matter how far away from home, people always have to share the harvest of the year when they rush home on New Year's Eve. Different places pay attention to different reunion meals: Hubei people pay attention to "three things" - whole chicken, whole fish, and whole duck; "three cakes" - fish cake, meat cake, lamb cake; and "three pills" - fish balls, Rice-meat dumplings, and lotus root balls. Beijing people eat water chestnuts during the Chinese New Year, which sounds like "must be even", meaning that the New Year is coming and family members should gather together for reunion. Even if someone cannot make it home in time, their family should still set up a set of dishes for them to show their satisfaction. On New Year's Eve, the whole family gathers to observe the New Year, reunites with family members to celebrate and prepare for the new year. For Chinese people, reunion is not only a spatial gathering, but also an emotional need for acceptance. Everyone returns from being a "social person" to being a "family member", and this sense of belonging is the core meaning of the cohesion of the Spring Festival. During the Spring Festival travel rush, on the train from Lhasa to Baiyun, Guangzhou, train staff interacted with children and enjoyed the joy of the journey. The cultural genes of the Spring Festival captured by Xue Ti, a reporter from China News Service: from the attachment of roots to the construction of a community, home is not only a living space, but also a spiritual homeland. Going home for the Chinese New Year means returning to a place with parents, relatives, and local customs, bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new with family, celebrating the New Year together, awakening memories of growth, confirming one's identity, and receiving emotional nourishment. This kind of return allows people to not lose their direction in wandering and maintain their original intention in change. Chinese people have always said that 'home is the smallest country, and the country is home to millions of families.' From 'cultivating oneself, unifying the family, governing the country, and pacifying the world' to contemporary patriotism, home has always been the warmest, softest, and safest harbor in the hearts of Chinese people. Every Spring Festival, home is like a lighthouse, indicating the direction of hometown and illuminating the journey home. On the occasion of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, people exchange New Year greetings and blessings with each other, continuing their friendship and establishing new social relationships. With the convenience of modern transportation and communication methods, visiting people at home to pay New Year's greetings goes hand in hand with telephone and video greetings. The interpersonal interaction during the Spring Festival has also extended from the circle of acquaintances to a wider social network. During the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Festival, people go out of their homes to enjoy the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Festival, enjoy the flower lanterns, and make social fireworks. Because of emotion, belief, and life needs, a wider range of interpersonal interaction and social exchanges are formed. The Chinese cultural gene of "family harmony brings prosperity" has been continuously passed down from generation to generation, from family reunions to interactions among everyone, and then to the development of national construction. No matter how the times change, the Chinese people's patriotism remains unchanged. Returning home for the Chinese New Year means once again savoring and experiencing the taste of hometown, the tolerance of family, and the care of relatives and friends. Looking back on past efforts, accumulating current gains, and gathering strength for the upcoming journey. Therefore, the Spring Festival has become the most enduring concern in the hearts of every Chinese person, and returning home for the New Year has also become a firm choice to cross mountains and seas. The Spring Festival travel rush is the largest population migration in the world, and it is the shared obsession of billions of Chinese people towards their homes; The Spring Festival Gala is a cultural feast shared by the whole nation, allowing Chinese people at home and abroad to witness the strength of the motherland. The Spring Festival not only consolidates the emotional identity of Chinese people around the world, but also moves towards a broader world stage. The Spring Festival is not only our holiday, but also a Chinese cultural gene that allows us to remember where we come from and where our hearts are headed. The reason why the Spring Festival can transcend thousands of years and continue to be a bond that unites Chinese people through changes is that it is a way of life that the Chinese nation constantly practices, and a crystallization of communication and integration among multi-ethnic and cross regional groups. Returning home for the Chinese New Year is a process of Chinese people moving back and forth between social and family communities. With the advancement of Chinese path to modernization, the Spring Festival, as a common festival of the isomorphism of the Chinese nation and country, continues to shape a multi-level space for communication, and also becomes the symbol of civilization and spiritual home of the Chinese nation community. (Xinhua News Agency) (Author Wang Dan is a professor at the China Ethnic Minority Research Center of the Central University for Nationalities. This article only represents personal views and is provided for readers' reference.)