Spring festival (Chinese new year) prepared by Karen

1. Spring Festival
Prepared by Karen
Chinese Spring Festival, also called Lunar New Year, has more than 4,000 years of
history. Being one of the traditional Chinese festivals, it is the grandest and the most
important festival for Chinese people. It is also the time for the whole families to get
together, which is similar with Christmas Day to the westerners. Originating during
the Shang Dynasty (about 17th - 11th century BC), Spring Festival, which celebrates
family reunion, is full of rich and colorful activities, and new hopes with the advent of
spring and flowers blossoming. People from different regions and different ethnic
groups celebrate it in their unique ways

2. Spring Festival
Prepared by Karen
Festival Time
The Spring Festival comes on the first day of Chinese lunar calendar and lasts for
almost half of a month. But in folk custom, this traditional holiday lasts from the 23rd
day of the twelfth month to the 15th day of the first month (Lantern Festival) in the
lunar calendar. Among these days, the New Year’s Eve and the first day of the New
Year is the peak time of the festival. The exact days are different in every year
according to the lunar calendar. Schedule of the Spring Festival in recent years is
offered in the following table.
History
It is said that the custom of Spring Festival started in when people offered sacrifice to
ancestors in the last month of the lunar calendar. At that time, people prepared the
sacrifice by doing thorough cleaning, having bathes and so on. Later, people began to
worship different deities as well on that day. It is the time that almost all the farm
works were done and people have free time. The sacrificing time changed according
to the farming schedule and was not fixed until Han Dynasty (202BC-220AD). The
customs of worshipping deities and ancestors remains even though the ceremonies
are not as grand as before. It is also the time that spring is coming, so people held all
kinds of ceremonies to welcome the spring.
Legends
There are many legends about the festival in Chinese culture. In folk culture, the
Spring Festival is also called "guonian” (meaning “passing a year”). It is said that the
"nian” (year) was a strong monster which was fierce and cruel and ate one kind of
animal including human being a day. Human beings were scared about it and had to
hide on the evening when the “nian” came out. Later, people found that “nian” was
very scared about the red color and fireworks. So after that, people use red color and
fireworks or firecrackers to drive away "nian” every year. As a result, the custom of
using red color and setting off fireworks remains.
Customs and Practices
Every family does a thorough house cleaning and purchases enough food, including
fish, meat, roasted nuts and seeds, all kinds of candies and fruits, etc, for the festival
period. Also, new clothes must be bought, especially for children. Red scrolls with
complementary poetic couplets, one line on each side of the gate, are pasted at
every gate. The Chinese character 'Fu' is pasted on the center of the door and
paper-cuts adorn windows.
Before the eve of the New Year, everyone tries to come back home from every corner
of the country to join the entire family. A new tablecloth was put on the dining table.

3. Spring Festival
Prepared by Karen
New dishes and new chopsticks were brought out. The beds were made up with new
sheets, new pillow cases and blanket covers. The sweetmeat and melon seed dishes
were filled. Fragrant Chinese narcissus plants with only fresh blossoms and buds
were purchased from vendors. The living room and altar were decorated with
pomelos, oranges, tangerines, New Year puddings and blooming narcissus plants.
Sweeping the Dust
“Dust” is homophonic with “chen”（尘）in Chinese, which means old and past. In this
way, “sweeping the dust” before the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of
houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. This custom shows a good wish of
putting away old things to welcome a new life. In a word, just before the Spring
Festival comes, every household will give a thorough cleaning to bid farewell to the
old year and usher in the new.
Pasting Spring Couplets
“The Spring Couplet”, also called “couplet” and “a pair of antithetical phrases”, is a
special form of literature in China. The Spring Couplet is composed of two
antithetical sentences on both sides of the door and a horizontal scroll bearing an
inscription, usually an auspicious phrase, above the gate. The sentence pasting on
the right side of the door is called the first line of the couplet and the one on the left
the second line. On the eve of the Spring Festival, every household will paste on
doors a spring couplet written on red paper to give a happy and prosperous
atmosphere of the Festival. In the past, the Chinese
Pasting Paper-cuts and “Up-sided Fu”

4. Spring Festival
Prepared by Karen
Paper-cuts, usually with auspicious patterns, give a happy and prosperous
atmosphere of the Festival and express the good wishes of Chinese people looking
forward to a good life. In addition to pasting paper-cuts on windows, it is common for
Chinese to paste the character “fu（福）”, big and small, on walls, doors and doorposts
around the houses. “Fu（福）” shows people’s yearning toward a good life. Some
people even invert the character “fu（福）” to signify that blessing has arrived
because “inverted” is a homonym for “arrive” in Chinese. Now many kinds of
paper-cuts and “fu（福）” can be seen in the market before the Festival.
Pasting New Year Prints
The custom of pasting New Year Prints originated from the tradition of placing Door
Gods on the external doors of houses. With the creation of board carvings, New Year
paintings cover a wide range of subjects. The most famous ones are Door Gods,
Surplus Year after Year, Three Gods of Blessing, Salary and Longevity, An Abundant
Harvest of Crops, Thriving Domestic Animals and Celebrating Spring. Four producing
areas of New Year Print are Tɑohuɑwu of Suzhou, Yɑngliuqing of Tianjin, Wuqiɑng of
Hebei and Weifang of Shangdong. Now the tradition of pasting New Year paintings is
still kept in rural China, while it is seldom followed in cities.
Having Dumplings

5. Spring Festival
Prepared by Karen
Food during this festival has its characteristics, which is the representative of Chinese
festival food culture. Dumplings and the reunion dinner are indispensable at this time.
Cold and hot dishes are all served. Fish is always an important dish then, which
expresses people’s hope of having a wealthy new year.
The CCTV New Year's Gala
The New Year’s Gala is a variety show held by China Central Television (CCTV) since
1983. For every year since then at the turn of the Lunar New Year, the program
begins at 8:00PM and lasts five or six hours. It brings laughter to billions of people,
creates many popular words and produces lots of TV phenomena meriting attention.
For over twenty years, its value has gone far beyond a variety show. It is essential
entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad. Many Chinese would like to
watch the gala while having the dinner on New Year’s Eve
Setting off Firecrackers
The firecracker is a unique product in China. In ancient China, the sound of burning
bamboo tubes was used to scare away wild animals and evil spirits. With the
invention of the gunpowder, “firecracker” is also called “鞭炮 biānpào” (“炮” in
Chinese means gun) and used to foster a joyful atmosphere. The first thing every
Chinese household does is to set off firecrackers and fireworks, which are meant to
bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new. In the past few years, such an
activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities including Beijing due to fire
and personal casualty caused by burning firecrackers. However, some Chinese
thought that a Spring Festival without firecrackers was not lively enough and they
burned firecrackers by stealth. So in recent years, the ban was canceled again. This
shows that burning firecrackers is a very important activity during the Spring Festival.

6. Spring Festival
Prepared by Karen
New Year's Visit and Gift Money
On the first day of the Chinese lunar year, everybody puts on their best clothes and
pays ceremonial calls on their relatives and friends, wishing them all the luck in the
coming year. Juniors will greet seniors, wishing them health and longevity, while
seniors will give juniors some gift money as a wish for their safety in the coming year.
When friends meet, they will wish each other happiness and prosperity with a big
smile. With the development of the new technology, there is a change on the way of
giving New Years greetings. In recent year, it is common to send New Years greetings
by such modern means of communication as telephones, emails and text messages.
Festival Greetings
Traditional Festival Greetings:
恭贺新禧 | Happy New Year
吉祥如意 | Everything Goes Well
恭喜发财 | Wishing You Prosperity
年年有余 | Surplus Year after Year
岁岁平安 | Peace All Year Round
新春大吉 | Good Luck in the New Year
Taboos
The Spring Festival is a new start for a new year, so it is regarded as the omen of a
new year. People have many taboos during this period. Many bad words related to

7. Spring Festival
Prepared by Karen
“death”, "broken”, "killing”, "ghost” and “illness” or “sickness” are forbidden during
conversations. In some places, there are more specific details. They consider it
unlucky if the barrel of rice is empty, because they think they will have nothing to eat
in the next year. Taking medicine is forbidden on this day, otherwise, people will have
sick for the whole year and take medicine constantly.
Allow me to congratulate you on the arrival of the New Year and to extend to you
all my best wishes for your perfect health and lasting prosperity.