Chinese YuanDan, New Year's Day in Chinese With Yuandan Wishes Suggestion

An Interesting Character "旦" in Chinese Yuandan

The second character 旦 (dàn) initially means a day, especially the first day of a month in the Chinese lunisolar calendar which is usually called 初一 (chū yī) in Chinese.

“旦”，最初的含义指一天，尤其是指中国农历里的初一这一日。

From the glyph perspective, the character 旦 (dàn) is composed of two other basic Chinese characters 日 (rì) and 一 (yī), which seem as if the sun rising from the sea level.

从字形上看，“旦”字由“日”和“一”两个汉字构成，仿佛太阳从海平面上升起的美景。

Moreover, the character 日 (rì) in Chinese is exactly the meaning of the sun. That is probably the reason that 旦 (dàn) in Chinese also indicates the morning, to symbolize the beginningof a day. For example, there is two-character Chinese word 旦夕 (dàn xī), separately specifying the morning and the night in Chinese.

而且，“日”在中文里正好表达的是太阳的意思。或许正是这个原因，“旦”字在中文里也有早晨的含义，象征这一日的开始。比如，在中国有一个词叫“旦夕”，其中两个汉字在中文里分别指的是早晨和晚上。

Consequently, Chinese people combined 元 and 旦 into a new word called 元旦 (yuán dàn) in Chinese, to indicate the first day in January, also extended to the first day of a common Year. And in China, this word symbolizes a new start of the year while everything looks fresh and new again.

因此，中国人将“元”字和“但”字结合起来合成“元旦”一词，指向 1 月里的第 1 天，也就是每年新年开始的第 1 天，象征着新年伊始，万象更新。

How to Express YuanDan Wishes & Greetings in Chinese?

怎样用中文表达元旦祝福？ [Yuán dàn zhù fú]

The most popular and shortest Yuandan wishes must be the four-character Chinese greeting: 元旦快乐！ (yuán dàn kuài lè). And this has almost become the basic formula for Chinese festival greetings like "XX 快乐", just replacing XX with festivals' Chinese names.

表达元旦祝福最常见也是最简单的句子是“元旦快乐！”。“XX 快乐”这几乎成为了用中文表达节日祝福的万能公式，只要套用上节日的中文名即可。

But to pay serious attention here, this formula is NOT proper to use for some sorrow festivals, e.g. NOT for "Tomb Sweeping Day" 清明节 (qīng míng jié) in China.

但必须强调的是，这个公式并不适用于一些沉痛的节日，比如中国的“清明节”。

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