过 (traditional 過) sets a phonetic atop the walking radical 辶 — the road-radical that drags characters into motion. To walk past, to cross over, to exceed: movement beyond a point.
过 crosses everything: 过马路 (cross the street), 过年 (pass into the new year — THE festival verb: Chinese New Year is literally 'crossing the year'), 过生日 (have a birthday). Tacked after a verb it marks experience: 我去过中国 ('I have been to China') — the closest thing Chinese has to a perfect tense. And 过来/过去 (come over / go over) shuttle people across space and, in 过去, into the past itself.
Walking 辶 past the marker — PASSED, CROSSED, EXPERIENCED.
过年 'crossing the year' recalls the legend of the monster 年 (Nián) — surviving its annual visit meant you had safely 'crossed'.