The Chinese New Year begins on January 28, 1998. This is the year
of the tiger.
Chinese New Year is the most important and longest holiday in
China. Chinese will begin celebrating on the New Year's Eve and
the celebrations will last for 15 days.
The Origin
Chinese New Year is the first day of the lunar calendar, so it
is also called the Lunar New Year. And it is also referred to
as the Spring Festival since it is the beginning of the Spring
term, which is the first term of the 24 terms
on the lunar canlendar.
It was recorded that Chinese started to celebrate Chinese New Year from about
2000 BC, though the celebrations were held on different times
under different emperors. They started to celebrate Chinese New
Year on the first day of the lunar calendar based on Emperor Wu
Di's almanac of the Han Dynasty.
Legend says the celebrations of Chinese New Year may be related to a
beast known as Nian. The beast Nian came out to eat people on
new years until an old man found a way to conquer it. Then people
started to observe and celebrate Chinese New Year. The word "Nian"
now has the same meaning as Chinese New Year, which is used as
commonly as Chinese New Year. And people often use the term "Guo
Nian", which may originally mean "passed or survived
the Nian". Now everyone loves Guo Nian.
The Year of the Tiger
The lunar calendar is represented by twelve animals.
Each year is represented by one animal. This year is the year
of the tiger. The 12 animals in order are: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit,
dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Chinese zodiac
is also based on the 12 animals.
Things Chinese Do
Here is a list of things or traditions Chinese may do around Chinese
New Year.
1. Preparation Usually the preparation starts a month before the new
year. The preparation includes thoroughly cleaning and decorating
the house, buying new clothes, preparing enough food for at least
two weeks. The decorations are highly symbolic with a lot of lucky
words, printed paintings and red colors everywhere. Kids are busy
in shopping for different kinds of firecrackers. Everyone gets
a haircut before the new year. So everything and everyone looks
new and fresh on the new year.
2. New Year' Eve The New Year's Eve is the time for families. The New
Year Eve's dinner is the biggest dinner of the year, much like
Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner is full of symbolic meaning,
such as Chinese dumplings implying wealth since they have the
shape of ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots. Everyone, even
kids, drinks a little Jiu (usually hard liquor), which symbolizes
longevity since Jiu has the same pronunciation as longevity in
Chinese. Then the family chats while watching national TV shows
or listening to radio together until the coming of the new year.
In China, the national TV shows have been prepared for a few months
by a group of famous entertainers.
3. Firecrackers Firecrackers are set off as soon as the new year arrives.
You can hear or see firecrackers everywhere and this usually lasts
for a few hours. Some people will continue to play firecrackers
occasionally through out the first half of the first month. Traditionally
fireworks are the sign of getting rid of the old and welcoming
the new. Fireworks are now banned in China, so this tradition
is history.
4. Red Packets Giving Hongbao or red packets during Chinese new year
is another tradition. A Red packet is simply a red envelope with
money in it, which symbolizes luck and wealth. Red packets are
typically handed out to younger generation by their parents, grand
parents, relatives, and even close neighbors and friends.
5. New Year Greetings Chinese New Year is also the time for socializing.
People usually wear new clothes and go out to visit and greet
their relatives and friends, so the streets are filled with a
lot of cheerful people. The greetings and visitings can go on
for a few days.
6. Dragon and Lion Dancing Dragon and Lion dancing is another tradition
of Chinese New Year.
7. Lantern Festival
Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Festival is on the 15th of the first month of Chinese
New Year, which marks the end of the New Year celebrations. Chinese
celebrate the first full moon of the year on this day. It is the
time for family reunion again. Yuanxiao is also a kind of cake,
which looks like a table tennis ball (a little smaller) made of
sticky rice with sweet stuffing inside. Everyone eats a few on
Lantern Festival, which symbolizes family will stick together.
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