Introduction to Chinese New Year

Introduction to Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year is the most important traditional Chinese holiday. The festival begins on the first day of the first month in the Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. To look at it based on western calendar, Chinese New Year normally falls between 20th January and 20th February Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere.

The origin of Chinese New year dated long time ago. At that time the world was not a safe place; monsters dominated the world. There was one horrifying monster that came out on the same day each year to eat people. This monster was named Nian, and the people marked the end of a year by his visits to the human civilization. That is where the Chinese word for year came from.

This monster was the most feared by the people because every time it came out, whole villages would be destroyed at a time. So, every time the monster came, people would huddle together in their homes and stay up all night, wanting not to be eaten. This happened for many years until a wise man thought up a plan to scare the monster away.

This man proposed that the people should light bamboo. The bamboo would crack and make a lot of noise, possibly scaring the monster away. The villagers thought this was a very good idea and started to light the bamboo. The noise was tremendous. The monster was scared by the loud noise and ran back to its cave without eating any people.

The next morning, everyone was present. Everyone was alive and they were excited. The people congratulated each other for conducting the plan effectively. So, from then on, people stayed up late, lit firecrackers and congratulated each other when the new year came.

After it became a tradition, Chinese developed a lot of celebrations formats differing from province to province in China. This holiday lasts for 15 days, each of which has different meaning and different celebration activities.

The Day before New Year, Chinese families give home a thorough cleaning. This is called “Wash away the dirt’ sweep away the bad luck of the preceding year and make the home ready for good luck”. At night, the New Year’s Eve families gather for their annual reunion dinner. In southern part of China, it starts with serving fish with a New Year cake. In my home town, northern part of china, it is customary to make dumplings. Dumplings symbolize wealth. After that, then we light the firecrackers to scare the monster.

First day of the festival is the time families’ visit and show respect to the elders in the families. I remember when I was little, my cousins and I usually have to kneel down like praying in front of my grandparents to show our best wishes. They would give us some money as a gift. Without too much sense of dignity at that age, that time is the one of the happiest time of the year. We can keep the money and buy whatever we want. Also, some families or business may invite a lion dance troupe to evict bad spirits from the previous year.
The second day of the Chinese New Year is for married daughters to visit their birth parents. Traditionally, daughters who have been married may not have the opportunity to visit their birth families frequently.
Also at this day, the Chinese pray to their ancestors as well as to all the gods. In northern part of China, some families will put candles and incense and food in front of the sculpture of Gods. I remembered that in my uncle’s home, they put those things in front of poster of Wealth God.
The third day is known as day of "the God of Blazing Wrath" It is generally believed that it is not a good day to socialize or visit your relatives and friends.
In the fifth Day, people eat dumplings on the morning In northern China. This is also the birthday of the Chinese god of wealth.
In the eighth day, there will be another family dinner to celebrate the eve of the birth of the Jade Emperor. However, everybody should be back to work by the 8th day. All of government agencies and business will stop celebrating by the eighth day.
The ninth day of the New Year is a day for Chinese to offer prayers to the Jade Emperor of Heaven (天宮) in the Taoist Tradition. The ninth day is traditionally the birthday of the Jade Emperor. Incense, tea, fruit, vegetarian food or roast pig, and paper gold is served as a customary protocol for paying respect to him.
The fifteenth day of the new year is celebrated as Lantern Festival. We will have rice dumplings, a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. In my home town, north part of China, we will have ice light. It is ice sculptures with light in it. Families are out to the parks to enjoy the beauty of the ice and snow art. Now it has developed as a national contest for ice and snow sculpture.
Chinese new year is also celebrated in Chinatowns. Usually, dancers along with firecrackers will kick-off the Festival Saturday morning. There will be food booth with various types of delectable items, amusement rides, and lots of live entertainment.
Zodiac Chart:
There is a rotating cycle of twelve animal signs, which are used to name the years in traditional China. The animal signs for one another are in an established order, and are repeated every twelve years. 2010 was the Year of the Tiger, and 2011 was the year of the Rabbit.
There are meanings of each year. In Rabbit years, life slows down. After the difficult Tiger year we lived through in 2010, we all need to decelerate. We need a whole year to recover from the struggle last year. Quite simply put, 2011 will give us a year devoted to calm. The emphasis will be on matters related to family, higher education and improvement of the world picture and the environment.

Reference: Wiki