Chinese New Year And The Celebrations

The Chinese New Year, or also Spring Festival is the most important event in the traditional Chinese holidays

. The Spring Festival begins on the first day of the first month (which pronounced zheng yue in Chinese) in the Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival ( yuan xiao in Chinese) on the 15th day.

The date of the Spring Festival

The date of the Spring Festival is determined by the lunar calendar, but it usually falls on different date each year because the Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days, and in order to catch up with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years, the way is like we adding an extra day on leap year. So we can see that sometimes the Spring Festival falls in January and sometimes in February. And in 2011, the Spring Festival will start on February 3, 2001.

Celebrations of the Spring Festival

The Chinese New Years Eve

Actually, on the Chinese New Years Eve (chu xi in Chinese), most families would be much busy to clean up the old things and paste spring couplets, because in Chinese the Chinese New Years Eve literally means Year-pass Eve, to pass away the bad things and prepare for the new and good things.

On the Chinese New Years Eve, tradition stipulated that all food be prepared before the New Years Day, so that all sharp instruments, such as knives and scissors, could be put away to avoid cutting the luck of the New Year. On the day, Chinese families will get together for their annual reunion dinner.

Traditional celebration

The celebration is traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, and the gods of the household and the family ancestors. The sacrifice to the ancestors is the most vital of all the rituals that united the living members with those who had passed away. And the departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family.

On New Years Day, everyone wears new clothes, and put on his best behavior. And children can receive red Lai-see Envelopes, which has good luck money wrapped in little red envelopes.

From the second day in the New Years Day, people begin going out to visit friends and relatives, taking with them gifts and Lai-See for children. Visitors would be greeting with traditional New Year delicacies such as melon seeds, flowers, fruits, and Niangao (like a cake but make in different way).

Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the Spring Festival

The Lantern Festival is not only the last day of the Spring Festival but also the Chinese traditional Lovers Day besides the Seventh Evening of the Seventh Month in lunar calendar. On the evening of that day, people carried lanterns into the streets to take part in a parade, watching lanterns, guessing the lantern riddles, and admiring the beautiful flowers. Some people highlight the parade with a dragon dance. The dragon is made of bamboo, silk and paper. They can stretch for more than hundred feet in length. The bobbing and weaving of the dragon is an impressive sight, and formed a fitting finish to the Spring Festival.

by: Stella

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