CHINESE NEW YEAR
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Xīn Nián Kuài Lè!
This is one way of saying Happy New Year in Chinese.
The Chinese New Year, also known as the spring festival, begins on 12th February in 2021. It is the most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The spring festival celebrates the start of new life and the season of ploughing and sowing.
New Year festivities start on the first day of the lunar month and continue until the fifteenth day, when the moon is brightest.
WHAT DO PEOPLE DO?
Chinese New Year is the oldest Chinese festival and has many traditions. Before the start of the festivities, Chinese people spring clean their houses to sweep away any bad luck. On New Year's Eve, all brooms, dustpan and brushes are put away so that good luck cannot be swept away.
Markets are set up as the New Year approaches, selling flowers, gifts, decorations, clothes and even fireworks. Houses are decorated with lanterns and paper scrolls with good luck phrases such as 'Happiness' and 'Wealth'. Some people even buy a plum tree in the same way we would buy a Christmas tree.
NEW YEAR MEAL
On New Year's Eve, family members gather together for a reunion dinner. The meal is very large and sumptuous, and traditionally includes pork, chicken and seafood, as well as a communal hotpot, which represents the family coming together. Some food names are homophones for words that mean good things, for example nian gao , a sticky rice pudding, whose name also means 'a more prosperous new year'. Other foods are symbolic, for example jiaozi are steamed dumplings, symbolising prosperity: as they are prepared, luck is packaged inside the dumpling, and the dumpling represents a silver or gold ingot or money.
It is customary to visit the oldest members of the family on the first day of the new year. A family portrait is also traditional, with the most senior members of the family in the centre.
TRADITIONS FOR GOOD LUCK
During Chinese New Year, Mandarin oranges or tangerines are considered traditional symbols of abundance and good fortune. During the celebrations, they are often displayed as a decoration and given as gifts to friends and relatives.
People often stay up late setting off fireworks, which were once used to frighten away evil spirits.
Red clothing is commonly worn throughout the New Year because it is a colour of good luck (and was thought to scare away bed fortune). People often wear new clothes to symbolise a new beginning - even new red underwear!
On New Year's Day children are often given a red envelope filled with money. The amount of money in the packet should be an even number. The number 8 is considered lucky, as the word 8 is a homophone for wealth. Sometimes chocolate coins are put in the packets.
In addition, gifts are also exchanged between friends and relatives: common gifts include fruits (often oranges, but never pears), cakes, biscuits and sweets.
WHAT ELSE DO PEOPLE DO?
Chinese New Year ends with the lantern festival on the fifteenth day of the month. The lanterns may be hand painted with scenes from history or legend.
People hang glowing lanterns at the windows of their houses and carry lanterns under the light of the full moon. A dragon dance often takes places with a dragon made of paper, silk and bamboo held aloft by young men dancing and guiding it around to collect money.
Sometimes the festivities are shortened, so that the lantern festival takes place on Chinese New Year's day, and you can see parades with dragon dancing and brightly painted lanterns.
CHINESE CALENDAR
The Chinese calendar is quite different from ours - even the year is not the same! Click here to see the calendar page and find out more. Do you know what animal you are?