Something about Chinese new year -----You may know or not

As a Chinese, it is the time, but late a little bit to share the happy moments.

Anyhow, the thousands year traditional custom, we love it, more and more.

Let us see...

Lunar New Year. (Chinese new year)

Chinese New Year is an important traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the first day of the year of the Chinese calendar. In China, we call it Spring Festival, the literal translation of the modern Chinese name. Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. Often, the evening preceding Chinese New Year's Day is an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual

reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity." Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes.

Mythology

According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian (Chinese: 年; pinyin: Nián). Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any

more people. One day people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun

Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian became Hongjun Laozu's mount.

HOW WE CELEBRATING

Preceding days

On the days immediately before the New Year celebration, Chinese families give the home a thorough cleaning.

There is a Cantonese saying "Wash away the dirt on ninyabaat" (年廿八，洗邋遢), but the practice is not to nin'ya'baat (年廿八, the 28th day of month 12). It is believed the cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes our homes ready for good luck.

Homes are often decorated with paper cutouts of Chinese auspicious phrases and couplets. Purchasing new clothing and shoes also symbolize a new start. Any hair cuts need to be completed before the New Year, as cutting hair on New Year is considered bad luck due to the homonymic nature of the word "hair" (fa) and the word for "prosperity". Businesses are expected to pay off all the debts outstanding for the year before the new year eve,

extending to debts of gratitude. Thus it is a common practice to send gifts and rice to close business associates, and extended family members.

In many households where Buddhism or Taoism is prevalent, home altars and statues are cleaned thoroughly, and altars that were adorned with decorations from the previous year are taken down and burned a week before the new year starts, to be replaced with new decorations. Taoists (and Buddhists to a lesser extent) will also "send gods" (送神, sòngshén), an example would be burning a paper effigy of Zao Jun the Kitchen God, the recorder of

family functions. This is done so that the Kitchen God can report to the Jade Emperor of the family household's transgressions and good deeds. Families often offer sweet foods (such as candy) in order to "bribe" the deities into reporting good things about the family.

Prior to the Reunion Dinner, a thanksgiving prayer offering to mark the safe passage of the previous year is held. Confucianists take the opportunity to remember the ancestors, and those who had lived before them are revered.

The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the Reunion Dinner,named as "Nian Ye Fan". A dish consisting of fish will appear on the tables of Chinese families. It is for display for the New Year's Eve dinner. This meal is comparable to Christmas dinner in the West. In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (jiaozi, 餃子, jiǎozi) after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese sycee. By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a glutinous new year cake (niangao, 年糕, niángāo) and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the new year.

First day

The first day is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens and earth, officially beginning at midnight. It is a traditional practice to light fireworks, burn bamboo sticks and firecrackers and to make as much of a din as possible to chase off the evil spirits as encapsulated by nian (年) of which the term guo-nian (过年) was derived.This day, you live like a college student in somewhere -- which means no showers, laundry or cleaning.

Second day

The second day of the Chinese New Year, known as kā inián (開年/开年, "beginning of the year"), was when married daughters visited their birth parents, relatives and close friends. (Traditionally, married daughters didn't have the opportunity to visit their birth families frequently.) During the days of imperial China, "beggars and other unemployed people circulate from family to family, carrying a picture [of the God of Wealth] shouting, "Cai Shen dao!" [The God of Wealth has come!]."[18] Householders would respond with "lucky money" to reward the messengers.

Third day

The third day is known as Chìkǒu (赤口), directly translated as "red mouth". Chìkǒu is also called Chìgǒurì (赤狗日), or "Chìgǒu's Day". Chìgǒu, literally "red dog", is an epithet of "the God of Blazing Wrath" (熛怒之神). Rural villagers continue the tradition of burning paper offerings over trash fires. It is considered an unlucky day to have guests or go visiting.

Fifteenth day

The fifteenth day of the new year is celebrated as Yuanxiao Festival/Yuánxi ā ojié ( 元宵節), also known as Shangyuan Festival/Shàngyuánjié (上元節) or the Lantern Festival (otherwise known as Chap Goh Mei Chinese:

十五暝; pinyin: Shíwǔmíng; literally "the fifteen night" in Fujian dialect). Rice dumplings tangyuan (simplified Chinese: 汤圆; traditional Chinese: 湯圓; pinyin: tā ngyuán), a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup, are eaten this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. This day is celebrated as the Lantern Festival, and families walk the street carrying lighted lanterns.

Lunar New Year is basically like having an entire country throw a family reunion all at once

During the Chinese New Year 2014, some 3.62 billion passenger trips will be made, Map Shows 1.3 Billion Exodus in China for Year of the Horse.

It is traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make

way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets with

popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity."

Kids open the red envelope to get their pocket money, unmarried young people also get lucky money from parents or relative. Even staffs get pocket money from the boss or elder on the first working day after holiday in Guangdong province in company.

Married daughter visiting home. Lunar New Year can be rough for singles, especially females.Many family reunions are highlighted by dreaded interrogations of singles who haven't settled down. Now there's a solution -- boyfriend rentals.
China's largest online retailer, Taobao, has a section for fake boyfriend rentals, so parents and relatives can finally stop nagging.
Renting a bogus marriage prospect ranges from RMB 500 ($82) to 8,000 ($1,321) per day.
The package comes with "a free embrace, hand holding and a goodbye kiss on the cheek," as well as a list of additional specific service charges.

Happy Spring Festival !!!