Lunar New Year

Chinese Lunar New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for the transportation system, which lasts around two weeks. Airports, railway stations, and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees. 

Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, falls on January 1 according to the lunar calendar, usually around middle January to early February. This year, January 22nd marks the beginning of the Year of Rabbit. It is the most important celebration of the year for Chinese People as it embodies the new year as well as the start of Spring. The biggest New Year’s party is held on CCTV. Thousands of people gather there on site, meanwhile millions of others all over the country sit in front of the screen to watch excellent performances till midnight, and people countdown to welcome the New Year. 

Chinese people have some traditions for the New Year. People begin to clean and decorate their rooms featuring an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black character on red paper. The content varies from house owners’ wishes for a bright future to good luck for the New Year. Waking up on the New Year, everybody dresses up and extends greetings to family members. Then each child will get money as a gift, wrapped up in a red envelope. People usually eat jiaozi or dumplings for breakfast as one of the traditions because Chinese people think “jiaozi” in sound means “bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new”. Also, the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China, so people eat them and wish for money and treasure. 

Setting fireworks was once the most typical custom of the Spring Festival. People thought the Spluttering sound could help drive away evil spirits. However, such an activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities once the government took security, noise, and pollution factors into consideration. As a replacement, people break little balloons to get the sound too, while others purchase firecracker handicrafts to hang in the living room. The lively atmosphere not only fills every household, but permeates to streets and lanes. 

A series of activities such as lion dancing, dragon lantern dancing, lantern festivals and temple fairs will be held for days. The Spring Festival then comes to an end when the Lantern Festival is finished. For our family, I enjoy making “jiaozi” with my mother and my daughter on New Year’ Day. Also, decorating the apartment with couplets is our favorite activity. In sum, it’s a season for gathering and we really look forward to the upcoming Rabbit Year.