Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is China's most important holiday. The Spring Festival celebrates the first month of the Chinese Lunar calendar. It signifies that winter is almost over and spring is arriving. The year is passing and another is about to begin.

The Chinese New Year is a time for the family to gather together and spend a happy time in celebration. Everyone celebrates and hopes for a new, good beginning.

As with all important holidays around the world the Spring Festival is full of tradition. These traditions begin well before the New Year and culminate with the Lantern Festival.

In preparation for the Spring Festival both young and old set about the task of cleaning out the house. The house is thoroughly cleaned and everything is put into order. Every room is meticulously cleaned.

Not only does this help prepare the family for celebration (who doesn't prefer a clean house for celebrations?) but it signifies the cleaning out of the spirit, the banishing of evil from the house and heart.

Another major task prior to celebrating is shopping. During the fifteen days of the Spring festival everyone is home with the family. There is no shopping done and no places of business are open.

Since most Chinese shop daily for food and daily needs the shopping that occurs prior to the Spring Festival is a major part of the holiday tradition. On the list of the good needed for the Spring Festival are: food, new clothes, firecrackers, pastries, and spirits.

Upon the completion of these tasks men set about writing the New Years scrolls. These are two pieces of long red paper that contain good wishes welcoming the new year. These scrolls are then pasted on either side of the main doors. Additionally, many households place the character for Spring (Chun) upside down on the front door.

Chinese is a language of puns and plays on words. The Chinese phrase for "Spring is upside down" sounds just like "Spring has arrived." It is common to see characters written upside down in an auspicious manner signifying that fortune has arrived.

Meanwhile, women set about the task of preparing the New Year's dinner. This meal is prepared for the day before the New Year. This meal is considered to be highly important. In China filial piety is highly cherished and expected. Family members are expected to drop whatever they may be involved in to share this meal. In Chinese culture one's home is a highly important place.

After dinner the children line up to wish blessings upon the adults.

The children are then given red envelopes that contain money; the children then do celebrate by lighting a few firecrackers.

Then everyone waits till midnight to welcome the new year and from every house fireworks can be seen and heard. The New Year has arrived and everyone is one year older!

The following day, the first day of the new year, everyone wears new clothes, Everyone is greeted with "Xin Nian Kuai Le,"."Happy New Year!" The adults then take the kids to go visit relatives. The kids, of course, hope to receive more red envelopes.

Then on the Fifteenth day of the New Year, when the moon is full, the lantern festival is celebrated. This is the last day of the New Year celebrations.

In ancient times there was no electricity and when it became dark everyone stayed inside. On this day of the full moon, the last day of the Spring Festival, people wanted to stay out despite the darkness.

So the tradition of the lantern festival was born. Lanterns are hung in front of every street to illuminate the streets. Many people on the streets also carry lanterns and the wealthy place many lanterns outside for everyone's benefit.

Handmade lanterns are placed in the temple courtyard. These can be all shapes and sizes and are often beautifully decorated. Often there are performances in the courtyard of the temple, singing and dancing, storytelling and riddles, are all common.

Traditionally during the Lantern Festival people eat sweet, little white dumplings. The dumplings made in various parts of China are different, but the custom remains constant.

The Chinese New Year is the most important of Chinese festivals. In Western nations it is hard to understand just what this holiday means to the Chinese. It is something like the New Year, Christmas, everyone's birthdays, and Independence Day all rolled into one fifteen day holiday.

Just like New Years celebrations around the world the Chinese Spring Festival looks forward to a new and better year.