Family reunion, happiness, and celebration, the warmest time of the Chinese year comes in the winter-time, and is known as the Chinese Spring Festival.
The Spring Festival is the Chinese Lunar New Year. The Spring Festival has a long history and is one of the largest, most lively and important traditional festivals in China. During the Spring Festival, various activities are held throughout China, and there are customary differences because of different regional cultures.
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The origin of the Spring Festival:
In ancient China, there was a monster called Nian that appeared to harm people and animals at night every December 30 of the lunar calendar. People were very afraid of Nian. One day, an old man came to the village, and he told the villagers that he would definitely drive Nian away. On New Year’s Eve, the old man put on red clothes and set off firecrackers outside the house. As soon as the monster Nian approached the village, he was scared away by the sound of firecrackers exploding. Since then, villagers will set off firecrackers to expel Nian every Spring Festival. Later it became what we call “New Year.” Chinese New Year is the Chinese spoken language for the Spring Festival.
There are many customs in the Spring Festival:
House cleaning:
Before the lunar new year, we need to clean the whole house, wash all kinds of utensils, wash the sheets and curtains, and clean the furniture. The meaning is to drive out the bad luck of the old year and welcome the good luck of the new year.I always help my sister’s family to clean the windows. Although it is not easy, I find happiness in it. Work is happy, and greeting the new year is happy.
Couplets:
Spring couplets are two rectangular pieces of red paper, on which intricate words are written with an ink pen. The couplets are then stuck to both sides of the door frame.
Welcoming the new year with firecrackers:
Chinese people now set off firecrackers more to welcome the coming of the New Year, and the explosion of firecrackers can always raise the atmosphere to a climax. The fireworks are set off on time at midnight on January 1st of the lunar calendar.
Red Envelopes at Spring Festival
I think that children may be the most eager in looking forward to the Spring Festival, because they can not only get new clothes and snacks they want, but also red envelopes distributed by adults. What is a red envelope? It also has another name: New Year’s money.
I know a legend about red envelopes. In ancient times, there was a demon, named Sui, who every Chinese New Year’s Eve liked to go to every family to touch the heads of sleeping children. Children touched by the monster will become silly after a few days. So on the night of the lunar new year, adults would stay up all night to guard the children. But one parent couldn’t help falling asleep at 3 a.m., so the demon came to his house. Just as the demon was about to touch the child’s head, suddenly a golden light flashed under the pillow to scare the demon away. It turned out to be a few copper coins the child’s parents had given their child to play with before going to bed. When other families learned about this, they put copper money under their children’s pillows, and sure enough, the children never got hurt again.
People today still follow this custom, putting money in red paper bags, depending on the family’s financial situation. When I was young, I received red envelopes from my relatives, and as long as I visited them during the Spring Festival, I would get red envelopes, which, although small, were a huge sum of money for me as a child.
New Year’s red envelopes are usually given to children, or students who are not married or working, by their elders. Of course, some younger generations will give red envelopes to the elders, so as to bless them with a healthy new year. Now that I have grown up, I distribute red envelopes to my nephews and nieces. They use the money in the red envelopes to buy the snacks or toys they want. It makes me happy to see the happiness on their faces.
Family Reunions
As an adult, my feelings about the lunar new year are more about looking forward to family reunion and good luck in the new year, while the children mostly care about the Spring Festival food and the number of red envelopes they might receive. After all, only the big ones think about success and failure, while the children just have to think about fun and games.
In any case, the Spring Festival in the hearts of Chinese is of special significance: this is the most important day of the new year. No matter how far away from home, Chinese people seek to return to their hometown and family reunion: Say goodbye to the old year in the sound of firecrackers.
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