Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as "Spring Festival," the literal translation of the Chinese name chun jie/春节 owing to the difference between Western and traditional Chinese methods for computing the seasons. It marks the end of the winter season, analogous to the Western carnival. The festival begins on the first day of the first month called zheng yue/正月 in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. Chinese New Year's Eve, a day where Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, is known as Chu Xi /除夕 or "Eve of the Passing Year." Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "Lunar New Year".
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Tibet, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the lunar new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Koreans (Seollal), and Bhutanese (Losar), Mongols (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết), and the Japanese before 1873 (Oshogatsu).
In countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, although Chinese New Year is not an official holiday, many ethnic Chinese hold large celebrations and Australia Post, Canada Post, and the US Postal Service issue New Year's themed stamps.
Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity". On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is to reconcile, forget all grudges and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.
MYTHOLOGY of Chinese New Year
According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian 年.
Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops,
and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the
villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of
every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they
prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that
the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers
then understood that the Nian was afraid of the colour red. Hence, every
time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red
lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used
firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to
the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian became Hongjun Laozu's mount.
What the Chinese do when 15th days of Chinese New Year
First day
The first day is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens and
earth, officially beginning at midnight. Many people, especially
Buddhists, abstain from meat consumption on the first day because it is believed that this will ensure longevity
for them. Some consider lighting fires and using knives to be bad luck
on New Year's Day, so all food to be consumed is cooked the days before.
On this day, it is considered bad luck to clean.
Most importantly, the first day of Chinese New Year is a time to
honor one's elders and families visit the oldest and most senior members
of their extended families, usually their parents, grandparents and
great-grandparents.
For Buddhists, the first day is also the birthday of
Maitreya Bodhisattva (better known as the more familiar Budai Luohan), the Buddha-to-be. People also abstain from killing animals.
Some families may invite a lion dance
troupe as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Chinese New Year as well as
to evict bad spirits from the premises. Members of the family who are
married also give red envelopes containing cash to junior members of the
family, mostly children and teenagers. Business managers also give
bonuses through red envelopes to employees for good luck and wealth.
While fireworks and firecrackers are traditionally very popular, some
regions have banned them due to concerns over fire hazards, which have
resulted in increased number of fires around New Years and challenged
municipal fire departments' work capacity. For this reason, various city
governments (e.g., Hong Kong, and Beijing, for a number of years)
issued bans over fireworks and firecrackers in certain premises of the
city. As a substitute, large-scale fireworks have been launched by
governments in such cities as Hong Kong.
Second day
The second day of the Chinese New Year, known as
kai nian 开年, "beginning of the year"
,
was when married daughters visited their birth parents, relatives and
close friends. (Traditionally, married daughters often didn't have the
opportunity to visit their birth families frequently.)
It is also the God of Wealth's birthday. During the days of imperial
China, "beggars and other unemployed people circulate from family to
family, carrying a picture [of the God of Wealth] shouting, "
Cai Shen dao!" [The God of Wealth has come!]."
Householders would respond with "lucky money" to reward the messengers.
Business people of the Cantonese dialect group will hold a 'Hoi Nin'
prayer to start their business on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year so
they will be blessed with good luck and prosperity in their business for
the year.
Some believe that the second day is also the birthday of all dogs and remember them with special treats
Third day
The third day is known as
chì kǒu (赤口), directly translated as "red mouth".
chì kǒu is also called
chì gǒu rì (赤狗日).
chì gǒu
means "the God of Blazing Wrath" (熛怒之神). It is generally accepted that
it is not a good day to socialize or visit your relatives and friends.
. Hakka villagers in rural Hong Kong in the 1960s called it the Day of the Poor Devil and believed everyone should stay at home.
This is also considered a propitious day to visit the temple of the God of Wealth and have one's future told.
Fourth day
In those communities that celebrate Chinese New Year for only two or
three days, the fourth day is when corporate "spring dinners" kick off
and business returns to normal.
Fifth day
In northern Mainland China, people eat
jiǎo zi 餃子), or dumplings on the morning of Po Wu (破五). In Taiwan, businesses traditionally re-open on the next day (the sixth day), accompanied by firecrackers.
It is also common in China that on the 5th day people will shoot off
firecrackers in the attempt to get Guan Yu's attention, thus ensuring
his favor and good fortune for the new year.
Seventh day
The seventh day, traditionally known as
ren ri(人日, the common man's birthday), the day when everyone grows one year older. In some overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Singapore, it is also the day when tossed raw fish salad, yusheng, is eaten for continued wealth and prosperity., lord of the devas in Buddhist cosmology who is analogous to the Jade Emperor.
Eighth day
Another family dinner is held to celebrate the eve of the birth of
the Jade Emperor. However, everybody should be back to work by the
eighth day. All government agencies and business will stop celebrating
by the eighth day. Store owners will host a lunch/dinner with their
employees, thanking their employees for the work they have done for the
whole year.
Ninth day
The ninth day of the New Year is a day for Chinese to offer prayers to the
Jade Emperor of Heaven (天公) in the Taoist Pantheon. The ninth day is traditionally the birthday of the Jade Emperor. This day is especially important to Hokkiens.
Come midnight of the eighth day of the new year, Hokkiens will offer
thanks giving prayers to the Emperor of Heaven. Offerings will include
sugarcane as it was the sugarcane that had protected the Hokkiens from
certain extermination generations ago. Incense, tea, fruit, vegetarian
food or roast pig, and gold paper is served as a customary protocol for
paying respect to an honored person.
Tenth day
The Jade Emperor's party is also celebrated on this day.
Eleventh through twelfth day
On these days, friends and family are invited for dinners.
Thirteenth day
On the 13th day people will eat pure vegetarian food to clean out
their stomach due to consuming too much food over the last two weeks.
This day is dedicated to the General
Guan Yu,
also known as the Chinese God of War. Guan Yu was born in the Han
dynasty and is considered the greatest general in Chinese history. He
represents loyalty, strength, truth, and justice. According to history,
he was tricked by the enemy and was beheaded.
Almost every organization and business in China will pray to Guan Yu
on this day. Before his life ended, Guan Yu had won over one hundred
battles and that is a goal that all businesses in China want to
accomplish. In a way, people look at him as the God of Wealth or the God
of Success.
Fifteenth day
T
he fifteenth day of the new year is celebrated as Yuan Xiao Festival(元宵节) or Shang Yuan Festival (上元节) or Lantern Festival, otherwise known as Chap Goh Mei 十五暝 literally "the fifteen night") in Fujian dialect. Rice dumplings tangyuan 湯圓, a sweet glutinous rice
ball brewed in a soup, are eaten this day. Candles are lit outside
houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. This day is celebrated as
the Lantern Festival, and families walk the street carrying lighted lanterns.
In Malaysia and Singapore, this day is celebrated by individuals seeking for a love partner, a different version of Valentine's Day.
Normally, single women would write their contact number on mandarin
oranges and throw it in a river or a lake while single men would collect
them and eat the oranges. The taste is an indication of their possible
love: sweet represents a good fate while sour represents a bad fate.
This day often marks the end of the Chinese New Year festivities.
Practices on Chinese New Year
Red envelopes
Traditionally,
Red envelopes or red packets (利是, 利市 or 利事 also called 红包)are passed out during the Chinese New Year's celebrations,
from married couples or the elderly to unmarried juniors. It is also
common for adults or young couples to give red packets to children. Red
packets are also known as 壓歲錢/压岁钱 (Ya Sui Qian, which was evolved from
壓祟錢/压祟钱, literally, the money used to suppress or put down the evil spirit ) during this period.
Red packets almost always contain money, usually varying from a
couple of dollars to several hundred. Per custom, the amount of money in
the red packets should be of
even numbers,
as odd numbers are associated with cash given during funerals (帛金: Bai
Jin). The number 8 is considered lucky (for its homophone for "wealth"),
and $8 is commonly found in the red envelopes in the US. The number six
(六, liù) is also very lucky as it sounds like 'smooth' (流, liú), in the
sense of having a smooth year. Sometimes chocolate coins are found in
the red packets.
Odd and even numbers are determined by the first digit, rather than
the last. Thirty and fifty, for example, are odd numbers, and are thus
appropriate as funeral cash gifts. However, it is common and quite
acceptable to have cash gifts in a red packet using a single bank note –
with ten or fifty yuan bills used frequently.
The act of requesting for red packets is normally called :
讨紅包, 要利是. A married person would not turn down such a
request as it would mean that he or she would be "out of luck" in the
new year.
Clothing
Clothing mainly featuring the colour red or bright colours is
commonly worn throughout the Chinese New Year because it was once
believed that red could scare away evil spirits and bad fortune. In
addition, people typically wear new clothes from head to toe to
symbolize a new beginning in the new year. Wearing new clothes also
symbolizes having more than enough things to use and wear in the new
year.
Symbolism
As with all cultures, Chinese New Year traditions incorporate
elements that are symbolic of deeper meaning. One common example of
Chinese New Year symbolism is the red diamond-shap
ed called fu
(福, Cantonese literally "blessings, happiness"), which are displayed on the
entrances of Chinese homes. This sign is usually seen hanging upside
down, since the Chinese word 倒 "upside down", is homophonous or nearly homophonous with 到 "arrive" in all varieties of Chinese. Therefore, it symbolizes the arrival of luck, happiness, and prosperity.
Red is the predominant colour used in New Year celebrations. Red is
the emblem of joy, and this colour also symbolizes virtue, truth and
sincerity. On the Chinese opera stage, a painted red face usually
denotes a sacred or loyal personage and sometimes a great emperor.
Candies, cakes, decorations and many things associated with the New Year
and its ceremonies are coloured red. The sound of the Chinese word for
“red” ( 紅) is “hong”
which also means “prosperous.” Therefore, red is an auspicious colour and has an auspicious sound.
Greetings
The Chinese New Year is often accompanied by loud, enthusiastic greetings, often referred to as 吉祥話 , loosely translated as
auspicious words or phrases.
New Year couplets, printed in gold letters on bright red paper, are
another way of expressing auspicious new year wishes. They probably
predate the
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), but didn't become widespread until then Today, they are ubiquitous with Chinese New Year.
Some of the most common greetings include:
- 新年快樂 xin nian kuai le .A more contemporary greeting reflective of Western
influences, it literally translates from the greeting "Happy new year"
more common in the west. But in northern parts of China, traditionally
people say 過年好 guo nian hao instead of 新年快樂,
to differentiate it from the international new year. And 過年好 can be
used from the first day to the fifth day of Chinese New Year. However,
過年好 is considered very short and therefore somewhat discourteous.
- 恭喜發財gong xi fa cai. which loosely
translates to "Congratulations and be prosperous". Often mistakenly
assumed to be synonymous with "Happy New Year", its usage dates back
several centuries. While the first two words of this phrase had a much
longer historical significance (legend has it that the congratulatory
messages were traded for surviving the ravaging beast of Nian,
in practical terms it may also have meant surviving the harsh winter
conditions), the last two words were added later as ideas of capitalism and consumerism became more significant in Chinese societies around the world. The saying is now commonly heard in English
speaking communities for greetings during Chinese New Year in parts of
the world where there is a sizable Chinese-speaking community, including
overseas Chinese communities that have been resident for several generations, relatively recent immigrants from Greater China, and those who are transit migrants (particularly students).
Numerous other greetings exist, some of which may be exclaimed out
loud to no one in particular in specific situations. For example, as
breaking objects during the new year is considered inauspicious, one may
then say 歲歲平安 sui sui ping an immediately, which means "everlasting peace year after year". Suì
(歲), meaning "age" is homophonous with 碎 (meaning "shatter"), in
demonstration of the Chinese love for wordplay in auspicious phrases.
Similarly, 年年有餘 nian nian you yu, a wish for surpluses and bountiful harvests every year, plays on the word yú
that can also refer to 魚 (meaning fish), making it a catch phrase for
fish-based Chinese new year dishes and for paintings or graphics of fish
that are hung on walls or presented as gifts.
The most common auspicious greetings and sayings consist of four characters, such as the following:
- Jinyu mangtang - "May your wealth [gold and jade] come to fill a hall"
- Dazhan hongtu - "May you realize your ambitions"
- Yingchun jiefu - "Greet the New Year and encounter happiness"
- Wanshi ruyi - "May all your wishes be fulfilled"
- Jiqing youyu - "May your happiness be without limit"
- Zhubao pingan - "May you hear [in a letter] that all is well"
- Yiban wanli = "May a small investment bring ten-thousandfold profits"
- Fushou shuangquan - "May your happiness and longevity be complete"
- Zhaocai jinbao - "When wealth is acquired, precious objects follow"
These greetings or phrases may also be used just before children
receive their red packets, when gifts are exchanged, when visiting
temples, or even when tossing the shredded ingredients of
yusheng particularly popular in Malaysia and Singapore.
Children and teenagers sometimes jokingly use the phrase 恭喜發財,紅包拿來 gong xi fa cai, hong bao na lai. roughly
translated as "Congratulations and be prosperous, now give me a red
envelope!". In the Hakka
dialect the saying is more commonly said as 'Gung hee fatt choi, fung
bao diu loi' which would be written as 恭喜發財,紅包逗來 – a mixture of the
Cantonese and Mandarin variants of the saying.
Back in the 1970s, children in Hong Kong used the saying:
恭喜發財,利是逗來,伍毫嫌少,壹蚊唔愛 (Cantonese), roughly translated as, "Congratulations
and be prosperous, now give me a red envelope, fifty cents is too
little, don't want a dollar either." It basically meant that they
disliked small change – coins which were called "hard substance" . Instead, they wanted "soft substance",
which was either a ten dollar or a twenty dollar bill.
