Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year Traditions (most of the information from this blog is taken from an article written by Jingbo Wu in Shanghai Family, Jan/Feb 2009 issue). We are so very excited to be in China to welcome in the New Year. The Spring Festival or Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday here in China. Imagine rolling together Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July into one holiday and that's how big this holiday is for the Chinese and it all starts tonight--New Year's Eve, January 25th. Unlike the West, Chinese New Year celebrations will last for 15 days, and preparing can begin up to a month before. The actual date of New Year's day changes from year to year because the Chinese calendar is based on the lunar calendar. It is divided into 12 months of 29 or 30 days; it is synchronized with the solar year by adding extra months at certain intervals. We just know that New Year's Day corresponds with the first day of the lunar calendar and this year it lands on Jan. 26th. The week preceding New Year's Day is called “Spring Welcome Week" or “Spring Cleaning Week”. Families will use this time to clean the home inside and out. Kitchenware is scrubbed, linens are washed or aired, and EVERYTHING is dusted. Once the New Year starts, no brooms can be used until the fifth day because it is believed that cleaning during the holiday will sweep the luck out of the family. I was told that if a family needs to sweep they will sweep into the house rather than sweeping outside of the house. Decorations are a huge part of the celebration which leads back to a legend regarding the New Year's eve monster or "Nian"--meaning "year". There are many legends about this monster but one which I have heard is that each year the monster would come to villages and eat all of the crops and villagers, especially the children. The villagers would put food outside their doors to appease the monster. One year they saw that the monster was afraid of a child wearing red. So, from then on the villagers would hang red banners with spring poems around their doors and they would light firecrackers off to scare away the monster. They also hang red lanterns EVERYWHERE. You can see a picture of our door which is decorated. In the middle is what is called a "fa", meaning luck. This symbol is hung upside down showing that luck has arrived. There are so many things which are symbolic of good fortune and prosperity here in China and you will see these hanging everywhere on stores, restaurants, and homes. Some of them are red peppers and fish. Much of this relates back to the large rural farming villages outside of the cities. But, these traditions are brought with those who move out of the smaller villages and seek work and a "better life" here in the cities. On New Year's Eve, celebrations begin around dinnertime. Families share big plates of food with each food symbolizing a quality or wish for the New Year. In particular, fish and hotpots are traditional "must-haves". Apparently, fish sounds like "extra" in Chinese so it symbolizes that the family will have sufficient money in the coming year. Other special foods are noodles, symbolizing long life, sticky rice cake symbolizing that the family's bread winners will be promoted, and dessert which represents sweetness and love. There are many toasts which are made by all of the family members throughout the evening. After dinner the family makes enough dumplings for the next 5 days. Having many dumplings symbolizes that the family will make a fortune. People stay up all night to guard against the eve monster. Over the night the family plays games and eats lots of snacks. (All but one of the Smiths made it to midnight, none of us ate any dumplings, but we had enough movies to keep us going for a few hours). This night is special and fun for the kids because the adults aren't allowed to yell at them even if they have too much chocolate or break something expensive--this will be the difficult part. Only lucky and auspicious words should be used and anything unpleasant should be avoided or it is thought that this can bring bad luck in the New Year. Phrases such as “Boy, you were lucky to not blow off your hand with those fireworks”, or “You were fortunate to not catch on fire!” are probably very commonplace. From our apartment (31st floor) we could see fireworks as far as the eye could see, and everywhere. They have been going off for the past few weeks. At 12AM the explosions start everywhere across the country at the same time—some where right outside of our window [be sure to check out the photos we’ve posted here]. These are believed to fend off the eve monster—and any helicopter pilots…fireworks everywhere!!! The first day of New Year's is spent visiting the father's side of the family, the second is for the mother's side, and the third is for other family and friends…well not for us. The older generation will give the younger generation "hong bao" or red envelopes with money to buy candy. Kendall and Veronica found these under their pillows in the morning. We've had so much fun learning about this amazing holiday with its amazing traditions. It's really about family and being together and good fortune in the coming year--whatever that may look like for each person, but at the heart is the family. This is just such a limited description of the richness of the traditions, we really hope you will look into this holiday more on your own. Of course, there is so much on the internet to explore, but you can also find the closest Chinese friend and sit down over a cup of coffee or tea and just ask them about it. I am sure they will be thrilled to tell you all about it. Blessings and prosperity in the coming year. "Gong xi fa cai" [roughly sounding, gong-she-fa-tsai]. Love, The Smith's Other Sites to read up on Chinese New Year (sites in English):

Wikipedia University of Canada