Spring Festival

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Unit 4
Spring Festival
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The Spring Festival-the oldest and most important
of China's traditional festivals .All the
traditional festivals in China are based on the
Chinese lunar calendar. The Spring Festival marks
the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year. In
Chinese, we also say Guo Nian, meaning keeping
off the monster of Nian.
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There are many legends about the origin of Nian,
The most popular one is this. It is said that
Nian was a fierce monster back in ancient times.
It looked like a strong bull with a head like
that of a lion. Usually the monster stayed deep
in the mountains and caught and ate other beasts.
But during the winter, it could not find enough
food. So it came out of its mountain lair and
entered villages to eat whatever it could catch.
Villagers became very frightened and moved away
to escape the ferocious monster. But later the
people found that even though it was fierce, Nian
was afraid of three things the red color, a
bright flame, and a loud noise. After learning
this, they figured out how to prevent Nian from
entering their villages.
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Just before Nian came again, every household
painted their door red and burned a fire in front
of their door-ways. Besides, the people did not
go to bed. Instead, they stayed up all night
beating on things to make a loud noise. Ever
since, Nian has never again come to the
villages. Thus, a tradition was established and
the customs have been kept through the years.
Later, the people found that bamboo could make a
crackling sound when burned. In time, the nose of
crackling bamboo was replaced with bang of
firecrackers. This is how the Chinese people
began to set off firecrackers for the Spring
Festival.
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Paper cuts During the Spring Festival, many
families decorate their window panes with
colorful and intricate paper cuts portraying
characters from Chinese opera, flowers, birds,
insects and fish.
New Year's Couplets New Year's couplets, written
on two strips of red paper, are an important
custom of the Chinese Spring Festival. On the
lunar New Year's Eve, families in both urban and
rural areas make it a point to grace their gate
posts or door panels with the couplets, composed
of two sentences that complement each other and
often rhyme expressing their hopes for the coming
year.
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New Year's Paintings New Year's paintings are a
type of Chinese folk art that draws inspiration
from the rural landscape and expresses
traditional notions of what is important in life,
such as prosperity and babies.
During the Spring Festival, many Chinese people
pin up a few New Year's paintings in their living
rooms to bid farewell to the old year and greet
the new.
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Greeting Cards Sending New Year's greeting cards
to one's friends and family is yet another
Chinese tradition. Sending the cards is a token
of good will and is a useful way of keeping in
touch with people one hasn't seen for a long time
or who live far away. Candles Throughout the
Spring Festival, from the first day of the lunar
new year to the Lantern Festival, as well as on
other important days of the year, it is
traditional for all Chinese people, whatever
their ethnic origins, to light brightly-colored
candles as an expression of their joyful mood.
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Since the Sping Festival marks the first day of a
brand new year, the first meal is rather
important. People from north and south have
different sayings about the food they eat on this
special day.
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In Northern China, people usually eat Jiaozi or
dumplings shaped like a crescent moon. It is said
that dumplings were first known in China some
1,600 years ago. Its Chinese pronunciation Jiaozi
means midnight or the end and the beginning of
time.
According to historical records, people from both
north and south ate dumplings on Chinese New
Year's Day. Perhaps because Southern China
produced more rice than any other area,
gradually, southern people had many more other
choices on New Year's Day.
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In addition to Jiaozi, the most common foods for
the first meal of the Spring Festival are
noodles, New Year Cakes and Tang yuan, a kind of
round sweet dumplings. Both the cakes and
dumplings are made of glutinors rice flour.
In China, the noodle symbolizes longevity. The
New Year Cake is called Nian Gao in Chinese. It
conveys the hope of improvement in life year
after year, the round sweet dumpling is a symbol
of reunion.
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Firecrackers It is traditional in China to
celebrate the Spring Festival by letting off
firecrackers or holding fireworks displays. As a
result, the New Year's Eve night-sky is often a
riot of color and everyone is kept awake to enjoy
the festivities by the noise of explosions all
around.
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Red envelop It is popular for Chinese people to
give a Red Envelop with some money for good
wishes to the children and relatives who are
younger than themselves.
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To distinguish the lunar New Year from the New
Year by the Gregorian calendar, the lunar New
Year was called the Spring Festival (which
generally falls between the last 10-day period of
January and mid-February). The evening before
the Spring Festival, the lunar New Year's Eve, is
an important time for family reunions. The whole
family gets together for a sumptuous dinner,
followed by an evening of pleasant talk or games.
Some families stay up all night, "seeing the
year out." The next morning, people pay New Year
calls on relatives and friends, wishing each
other good luck. During the Spring Festival,
various traditional recreation activities are
enjoyed in many parts of China, notably lion
dances, dragon lantern dances, land-boat rowing
and stilt-walking.