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