Celebrate Our Traditional Spring Festival!

Celebrate Our Traditional Spring Festival!

      Chinese Lunar New Year will get its start on Feb. 1, 2022, and this year it’s the year of the tiger. Traditional celebrations of this big event in China will last for 15 days.

      How much do you know about Spring Festival? With great honor I would like to introduce this warm and charming festival to you.

      Spring Festival is the New Year in China and some other regions, usually in February of the calendar. Usually people start to celebrate the day before the Spring Festival, which is the last day of the lunar calendar, like Christmas Eve, people call it "New Year's Eve". The evening preceding the New Year's Day is frequently regarded as an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly clean their house, in order to sweep away any ill fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Another custom is the decoration of windows and doors with red paper-cuts and couplets. Popular themes among these paper-cuts and couplets include good fortune or happiness, wealth, and longevity. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes. In fact, there is only one activity on this day, that is be with the family.

Origin of Spring Festival

      In traditional Chinese mythology, "Nian" (meaning "Year" in Chinese) is a monster that begins to prey on humans the night before the new year, and people are very afraid. In order to avoid the Nian, the ancestors reunited with the family to resist the Nian beast. Since the Nian beast appears once a year, the ancestors have figured out the trick in countless struggles. Although the Nian beast is fierce, it is afraid of red, fire and loud noises. Therefore, every household sticks red spring couplets on the door, sets up bonfires and sets off firecrackers at the door. Nian Beast saw the red couplet on the door of the house, the bonfire was lit at the door, and the firecrackers were cracking, so he never dared to hurt human beings again.

Customs of Spring Festival

      During the Spring Festival, people all over the country will devote themselves to a festive atmosphere. The most traditional and representative celebrations include decorating the home, giving out red envelopes, New Year's Eve dinner, etc.

Red Envelopes

During the Spring Festival, the elders will give the younger generation some money, which is wrapped in red envelopes, called "New Year's money", commonly known as "red envelopes".

Paste Couplet

Usually the words on the couplet are auspicious blessings, which represent people's wishes for the coming year.

New Year's Eve Dinner

On this day, all family members get together for a meal. This meal is usually the most hearty meal of the year, and people will cook different dishes such as chicken, duck, and fish.

Festival

Chinese folk associations hold many celebrations such as lion dances, lanterns, etc.

Special Food for Spring Festival

Some people may wonder what is on the New Year's Eve dinner. Like turkey at Thanksgiving, Chinese New Year's Eve dinners also have specific dishes.

Dumplings

I'm sure many of you have heard of this Chinese delicacy. In fact, there are also different types of dumplings in the northern and southern regions of China.

Dumplings in northern China, also known as Jiaozi, typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together. Finished jiaozi can be boiled, steamed , pan fried, or deep fried, and are traditionally served with a black vinegar and sesame oil dip. They can also be served in a soup.

Dumplings in southern China are called glue pudding, rice ball or sweet dumpling. In Chinese it is “Tangyuan”, consisting of a skin made of glutinous rice flour and fillings such as black sesame or peanuts, it can be boiled or fried and placed in hot soup or syrup. "Tangyuan" is pronounced like "tuanyuan", which means reunion in Chinese, so many Chinese cook this dish on family reunion days.

Longevity Noddles

The main ingredient of longevity noodles is high-gluten flour, with various seasonings, which represent people's good wishes for the future. People usually eat longevity noodles on birthdays or some important festivals, which means wishing each other a long and safe life.

Fish

Fish is pronounced the same as "Yu" in Chinese, which means "surplus". There is an idiom in China called "年年有余", which means that there is surplus every year, and it expresses the people's expectation for a prosperous life. Therefore, eating fish during the Spring Festival is a common custom in China.

Mandarin oranges

They are particularly associated with the festival in southern China, where its name is a homophone of the word for "luck" in dialects such as Teochew.

      Chinese New Year is one of the most important holidays in China. As mentioned earlier, in China, the Spring Festival is the day of family reunion. With a vast area of China, there are also a lot of floating population. Every year, they only look forward to this time to be with my family.

      If you have the chance, be sure to come to China to experience the festive atmosphere during the Spring Festival. I believe you will be infected by the joy and enthusiasm of the Chinese people, and you will have an unforgettable journey