History of the holiday
According to the history of the holiday, before the New Year comes, the Chinese are hiding from the monster with the name Nian (年 – year). According to the myth, Nian comes on the first day of the New Year, in order to take food, cattle from the inhabitants of China, to stock up on food for the whole year. In some myths on New Year's Eve, Nian takes Chinese children and adults. According to the legend, with the advent of the New Year, in order to protect themselves and their children, the residents began to put a lot of food in front of the house, in the hope that Nian would take it or eat it and, full of food, would leave people alone for the whole current year.
The story ends with the fact that once while Nian was entering the village on the first day of the New Year, he saw a child in red clothes and disappeared, since then people began to think that the monster is afraid of red. At the beginning of the holiday on the Chinese New Year, they began to hang up red lights, light fireworks, thus scaring off evil spirits.
During Spring Festival everything is decorated with bright red objects. This color is considered a favorable color, contributing to happiness and luck, so that the chinese hang red paper lanterns, amulets and paintings depicting money. Decorations in public places are hanged out one month in advance, but it’s customary to make home decor with the whole family on New Year’s Eve. Now we are in for the Year of the Pig, so in the decoration people use decorations associated with this particular animal. It is also believed that cleaning the house removes residents from failures, and furniture admits happiness to the house.
Christmas tree in China is replaced by tangerines and oranges, fruits are laid out on a tray of 8 pieces of mandarins and orange, which fit into a circle. Eight in the Chinese is considered a symbol of longevity.8 is also a symbol of money, because pronunciation of 8(fa1) and 发 (fa1) from 发财(fa1cai2 - grow rich) is absolutely the same.
On the Chinese New Year, it is not customary to give expensive gifts, the Chinese, when they come to visit, give the owners of the house small presents, ranging from the eldest family member to the younger one. The owner of the house, as a rule, is given two mandarins, the Chinese are considered to be the happiest pair, but despite this, the number 4 in China is a symbol of death, a bad sign, because 4(si4) and 死(si3) are also have the same pronunciation, so 4 should not be on the donated money, as a gift.
Tradition of the celebration
In Chinese New Year, the family should spend time together. No matter where you are during the year - it is at this time that you need to come to the family house, where the so-called “reunion dinner”, the most important meal of the year, will await you. Then Chinese families watch a television show; send greetings to friends - in a word, there are no strong differences from the traditional Western New Year. Use this New Year as a reason to meet with your loved ones and give them your love, as well as choose a pleasant evening show to share.
From the first minute of the new year, Chinese people launch as many firecrackers, firecrackers and fireworks as possible. Exactly at midnight, billions of shots are heard everywhere, scaring off evil spirits.
The most common gift for the New Year is a red envelope. People put money in it, and the red color of the packaging symbolizes incredible luck. You can prepare several symbolic bills or put sincere wishes in your envelopes to your close people, so that their year will be as successful as yours.
Must be on the New Year's Eve's dinner
Food in the Chinese New Year also has a symbolic meaning, for example, the main dish becomes “fish”, since in Chinese it is consonant with the word “wealth”. The fish
(鱼yu2) and wealth (余yu2) are pronounced in the same way. Fish, dumplings, dumplings and rice cakes are eaten throughout the 16-day holiday season and always on New Year's Eve.
Characteristic of Yellow Earthen Pig and what to expect from new year
In general, the year promises to provide creative inspiration, rethinking values and a radical change in one's own views. No wonder that the teacher will suddenly become a street musician, and a loader - a talented artist. The point is this: a year of great changes and accomplishments is coming, which must be implemented, and Pig will add strength and determination to you. Do not be afraid of new opportunities, lots of work and responsibilities , you will definitely get lots of profits and benefits from it!
About the blogger:
Masha is a Chinese Government scholarship student at Fudan University. She started her way of learning Chinese language from 2015 year, since she had enrolled in Moscow City University as a bachelor student in Oriental studies. After two years she got a Chinese Government scholarship and went to Zhejiang University for one-year language course. During that year she successfully passed HSK 5 and has been accepted by Fudan University. Now she started new page in her life in Shanghai, but she did not drop out at Moscow City University. So now she is a bachelor student at two universities.
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