The Spring Festival is also called Chinese Lunar New Year. Being one of the traditional Chinese festivals, it is the grandest and most important festival for Chinese people. It is also the time for whole families to get together, which is similar to Christmas for Westerners.
In folk culture, celebrating the Lunar New Year is also called “guonian” (literally meaning “passing a year”). It is said that the “nian” (year) was a fierce and cruel monster, and every day, it ate one kind of animal including human beings. Human beings were naturally scared and had to hide on the evening when the “nian” came out.
Later, people found that the monster was afraid of the red color and fireworks. So after that, people used the red color and fireworks or firecrackers to drive away “nian”. As a result, the custom has remained to this day.
The traditional Chinese zodiac attaches one of 12 animal signs to each lunar year in a cycle. 2022 is the year of the Tiger.
The New Year’s Eve dinner is called ‘ Family Reunion Dinner’, and is believed to be the most important meal of the year. Every family will make the dinner the most sumptuous and ceremonious one in the year. Hostesses will fetch out prepared food and all family members will sit together and make dumplings in harmony. At twelve o’clock, every family will shoot off firecrackers to greet new days and send off old ones.
Post time: Jan-20-2022