How we Chinese celebrate the Spring Festival
These days, almost all of my Chinese friends here in Korea are busy getting ready to go back to China because the Spring Festival is coming. The Spring Festival is by far the most important traditional holiday in China. It represents reunion, happiness and harmony. No matter where we are, we should go back home to celebrate it with our families. Chinese people regard the first day of the year according to the lunar calendar as the real new beginning of a year. One or two months before Chinese New Year’s Day, almost all of us Chinese people live in the hope of greeting it. Adults hope to receive large Chinese New Year’s Day pay bonuses, while children hope to get a whole set of new clothes---- new coats, new pants, new shoes, and even new socks. There is also an interesting custom---- if someone’s birth sign is the zodiac sign of the coming year, he or she should wear red underwear on the first day of the New Year. We believe that it can help him or her to be lucky in the year of his zodiac sign.
As China is quite big, the celebration of Spring Festival varies from place to place. In Shanghai, the celebration actually begins one or two days before Chinese New Year’s Day. Companies always hold feasts and invite their employees to attend them with their families two days before New Year’s Day. The next day, people throw themselves into the preparation for the “Dinner of Chinese New Year’s Eve.” Almost everyone is very busy---- some go shopping, some stay at home and clean the house thoroughly, some make delicious traditional foods. We always stick traditional festive pictures or couplets on doors and windows, and also hang red Chinese bowknots indoors. In the evening, families get together and have the most important dinner of the year---- the “Dinner of Chinese New Year’s Eve.” In the past, people made the dishes themselves, but nowadays more and more people go out to restaurants to celebrate. No matter where we have the dinner, there are some dishes that we are supposed to eat---- fish (which means one can have a lot of money left every year), sticky rice which contains Chinese dates, melon seeds, etc (that means one can meet with luck in the New Year), and rice cakes (which mean one can make progress that year). The dinner always takes a long time because there are really a lot of dishes. After dinner, people sit together talking, watching TV, or playing traditional games (such as Ma Jiang). Children always go out to shoot off fireworks. At around midnight, people shoot off firecrackers to greet the New Year. At that time, the sound of firecrackers is so loud that people almost cannot hear each other talk. Besides Chinese New Year’s Eve, people also fire off many firecrackers on the fourth day of the Spring Festival, because that day is the date of “Greeting the God of Wealth.”
Since there are many people who believe in Buddhism in China, on Chinese New Year’s Day, many people go to temples to make New Year’s wishes. After that, they go to their relatives’ houses and start their “feast tours.” In fact, the main task during Spring Festival is eating here, there, and everywhere. People always go to their relatives’ or friends’ homes at around 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning. Lunch goes on until about 3:00p.m or 4:00p.m. After about 2 hours, dinner begins. There are always about 15 or even more kinds of dishes in the meals. During the rest of the time, people also have many kinds of traditional snacks, such as peanuts, melon seeds, and dried plums.
During the Spring Festival, it is maybe the children who are the happiest ones. Beside their new clothes and the endless delicious foods, they can receive Red Packets which contain money, (we call them “Hong Bao” in Chinese) from their parents and relatives. Giving Red Packets is an important part of our customs during the Spring Festival.
There is also a 7-day official vacation during the Spring Festival. Then, on the 8th day, people have to go back to work. But we still have the custom to celebrate the “Lantern Festival.” It is on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year. We eat Tang Yuan (rice cake balls with sweetened bean paste in them) on that day. Children go out to take a walk with all kinds of pretty animal lanterns. I still remember that when I was a child, I was very proud of my bunny lantern that my father made for me. Going out to take a walk with my pretty lantern was always such a glorious thing to me. The Lantern Festival is the last part of the Spring Festival. After that, people have to readjust their diet and clean up the leftovers, while children have to hurry to finish their winter vacation homework before the new semester begins. At that time, my Chinese friends will have to pack their bags again and make their way back to Chonnam University, where they will have to live on cafeteria food again during the next semester.
