14-02-2007 The
Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when
all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West. All people living
away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of
about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance
bus stations are crowded with home returnees. The
Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later
than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c.
1100 BC) from the people's sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old
year and the beginning of a new one. Strictly
speaking, the Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of the 12th
lunar month and will last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next year. Of them,
the most important days are Spring Festival Eve and the first three days. The
Chinese government now stipulates people have seven days off for the Chinese Lunar
New Year. Many
customs accompany the Spring Festival. Some are still followed today, but others
have weakened. On
the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge, a delicious
kind of porridge made with glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job's tears, jujube
berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko. The
23rd day of the 12th lunar month is called Preliminary Eve. At this time, people
offer sacrifice to the kitchen god. Now however, most families make delicious
food to enjoy themselves. After
the Preliminary Eve, people begin preparing for the coming New Year. This is called
"Seeing the New Year in". Store
owners are busy then as everybody goes out to purchase necessities for the New
Year. Materials not only include edible oil, rice, flour, chicken, duck, fish
and meat, but also fruit, candies and kinds of nuts. What's more, various decorations,
new clothes and shoes for the children as well as gifts for the elderly, friends
and relatives, are all on the list of purchasing. Before
the New Year comes, the people completely clean the indoors and outdoors of their
homes as well as their clothes, bedclothes and all their utensils. Then
people begin decorating their clean rooms featuring an atmosphere of rejoicing
and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted with Spring Festival couplets,
highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The content
varies from house owners' wishes for a bright future to good luck for the New
Year. Also, pictures of the god of doors and wealth will be posted on front doors
to ward off evil spirits and welcome peace and abundance. The
Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. The
character put on paper can be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese the
"reversed fu" is homophonic with "fu comes", both being pronounced
as "fudaole." What's more, two big red lanterns can be raised on both
sides of the front door. Red paper-cuttings can be seen on window glass and brightly
colored New Year paintings with auspicious meanings may be put on the wall. People
attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve. At that time, all family members
eat dinner together. The meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such as chicken,
fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively
"ji", "yu" and "doufu," mean auspiciousness, abundance
and richness. After the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting and
watching TV. In recent years, the Spring Festival party broadcast on China Central
Television Station (CCTV) is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home
and abroad. According to custom, each family will stay up to see the New Year
in. Waking
up on New Year, everybody dresses up. First they extend greetings to their parents.
Then each child will get money as a New Year gift, wrapped up in red paper. People
in northern China will eat jiaozi, or dumplings, for breakfast, as they think
"jiaozi" in sound means "bidding farewell to the old and ushering
in the new". Also, the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient
China. So people eat them and wish for money and treasure. Southern
Chinese eat niangao (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) on this occasion,
because as a homophone, niangao means "higher and higher, one year after
another." The first five days after the Spring Festival are a good time for
relatives, friends, and classmates as well as colleagues to exchange greetings,
gifts and chat leisurely. Burning
fireworks was once the most typical custom on the Spring Festival. People thought
the spluttering sound could help drive away evil spirits. However, such an activity
was completely or partially forbidden in big cities once the government took security,
noise and pollution factors into consideration. As a replacement, some buy tapes
with firecracker sounds to listen to, some break little balloons to get the sound
too, while others buy firecracker handicrafts to hang in the living room. The
lively atmosphere not only fills every household, but permeates to streets and
lanes. A series of activities such as lion dancing, dragon lantern dancing, lantern
festivals and temple fairs will be held for days. The Spring Festival then comes
to an end when the Lantern Festival is finished. China
has 56 ethnic groups. Minorities celebrate their Spring Festival almost the same
day as the Han people, and they have different customs.
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