THE LUNAR NEW YEAR OF THE TIGER

Chinese New Year is one of the most significant festival for Chinese and it marks the beginning of the new year for the Chinese. It is celebrated on the first day of the first month in the traditional Chinese calendar. Unlike Christmas, it always falls on a different date each year as it is based on the lunar month. Lunar month is around two days shorter than a solar month, so an extra month is inserted every few years to catch up with the solar calendar. Normally, the celebration will start from the New Year’s Eve and will last for around 15 days until the mid of the first month.

The History of Chinese New Year

According to history, Chinese New Year started millions of years ago. It begun with a wild beast, known as “Nian” that comes out from the sea at the end of each year attacking people, animals and destroy properties. The people found out that “Nian” is afraid of red colour, loud noises and bright lights. Therefore, the people begun to post red Dui Lian in front of the house, launched fireworks and crackers and hanged up lanterns to scare the beast away, and the Chinese New Year celebrations were born.

Before Chinese New Year

A few days before the celebration, people will normally do a complete cleaning of the house and house ware. This is to get rid of the old and welcome the new. In old days when bathing was not often, people would normally take a full bath to welcome the New Year.

After the cleaning, people will decorate the house to welcome the New Year. Most of the decorations are red in colour as it denotes good luck or fortune and happiness in the Chinese Culture. The most popular New Year decorations are upside down fu, dui lian, lantern, year paint, paper cutting, and door god.

New Year’s Eve

Chinese New Year’s Eve is the most important part of the celebration as it is the time for family reunion. All the family members and relatives especially those from far away will gather and have reunion dinner together. Special food like fish, chicken, ducks, dumplings will be served during the dinner.

After the dinner, family members will normally stay awake during the night. Right after the 12:00 p.m. of the New Year’s Eve, fireworks will be launched to celebrate the coming of the New Year as well as to drive away the evil and to get good luck in return.

During Chinese New Year

On the first day of the New Year, Chinese put on new clothes which are preferably red in colour. Normally younger people will visit and greet the older relatives and friends ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’ which means congratulations and be prosperous. Some other greetings are like ‘Wan Shi Ru Yi’ means everything follow your will, ‘Ji Xiang Ru Yi’ means harmony and follow your will and ‘Sui Sui Ping An’ which means harmony and safely year around.

During this time, married couples and elderly will give away red packets, known as ‘angpau’ filled with money to children or unmarried adults with no job. It is believed that the ‘angpau’ will suppress evil from children and keep them healthy and long-living. There will be a lion dance during the celebration. The celebration will sometimes be highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honour of heaven, earth, and other gods, as well as the family ancestors.

On the fifteenth day of the New Year, there will be lantern festivals. Everywhere will be decorated with lanterns of different sizes and in the streets there is music and dancing. This will eventually mark the end of the New Year celebrations.

Closure

Chinese New Year customs vary in different parts of the world. Today, Chinese New Year has been considered as the chance for relaxation from work. Although younger generations observe the Chines New Year differently from their ancestors, the celebrations still remains the most important social and economic holiday for the Chinese. It is not the time to honour household and heavenly deities and ancestors but also the time to remember family and wish everyone peace and prosperity in the coming year.

New Year Cake

It is a solid cake made with glutinous rice flour together with some sugar. New Year Cake is popular in Eastern China.

Tang Yuan

Tang Yuan is small ball made from glutinous rice flour. Glutinous rice flour is mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and is then cooked and served in boiling water. Tang Yuan can be either filled or unfilled. It is traditionally eaten during Yuan Xiao, or the Lantern Festival (the 15th of the first month of the traditional Chinese calendar).

LaBa Congee

It is a mixture of rice, nuts, and beans cooked together. LaBa Congee is usually served on LaBa festival which is the 8th day of the last month of the year.

Tradition

Different parts of China have very different traditions. The following are the most typical traditions.

Shou Sui

Red Packets

Red packet is a red envelope with money in it, range from one to a few thousand Chinese Yuan. Usually the red packet is given by adults, especially married couples, and elderly to young children in the New Year days. It was believed that the money in the red packet will suppress the evil from the children, keep the children healthy, and long living.

New Year Markets

At the New Years days, a temporarily market will be setup mainly selling New Year goods, such as clothing, fireworks, decoration, foods, small arts, etc. The market is usually decorated with a large amount of lanterns.

Small Year

Small year is the 23th or 24th of the last month of the year. It is said that this is the day the food god will leave the family to go to the heaven to report the activity of family to the Emperor of the heaven. People will have some religious ceremony to farewell the food god, including take down and burn the paint of the food god. After the New Year’s Day, people will buy a new paint of the food god and hang it in the kitchen.

CNY Crafts (Pside Down Fu)

The most popular Chinese New Year crafts are probably the upside down character of “Fu“. “Fu” in Chinese means luck, happiness, and prosperity. The upside down means, coming. So this craft means luck, happiness, and prosperity is coming. Usually the “Fu” is written on a diamond shape paper with red background. People normally hang the “Fu” on front door or on the wall of the living room.

Dui Lian

Also called antithetical couplet. It is a pair of lines of poetry usually hand written on red paper and pasted on the front. The two lines correspond in their metrical length and some properties of each character, such as meaning and tone. The ideal for a duilian is to have few words but deep meaning. For this reason, they use one character per word, as in much of Classical Chinese.

Lantern

The type of lantern used in Chinese New Year is usually decorated with red paper shell. Some lanterns have candles inside for illustration. Most are just made of red paper for decoration purpose only. In Chinese New Year, the lantern is usually hanging in front of the door or inside the house. In some parts of China, lantern is a must for Yuan Xiao festival (15^th of the first month of the traditional Chinese calendar).

Year Paint

Year Paint is a piece of big hand drawing paint. Usually, the size is at least 3 by 3 feet. Normally the Year Paint is hanged in the most prominent place of the living room. The most popular subjects on the paint are mountains, tiger, long living god, children, etc.

Papercutting

Papercutting is a piece of art that is cut from paper, usually red paper in China. Most popular subjects are animals, human, flowers, or the character of “Xi” which means happiness. In Chinese New Year, most papercutting were stick on windows, some are placed on wall or front door.

Door God

A door god is a Chinese decoration placed on each side of an entry to a temple, home, business, etc., believed to keep evil from entering.

The Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival as it’s been called since the 20th century, remains the most important social and economic holiday in China. Originally tied to the lunar-solar Chinese calendar, the holiday was a time to honour household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors. It was also a time to bring family together for feasting. With the popular adoption in China of the Western calendar in 1912, the Chinese joined in celebrating January 1 as New Year’s Day. China, however, continues to celebrate the traditional Chinese New Year, although in a shorter version with a new name–the Spring Festival.

Significantly, younger generations of Chinese now observe the holiday in a very different manner from their ancestors. For some young people, the holiday has evolved from an opportunity to renew family ties to a chance for relaxation from work.