Every year when winter is about to end and spring is coming, the Chinese always grandly celebrate the first traditional festival in a year - the Spring Festival or New Year of lunar calendar. It can be called the grandest and most exciting festival for the Chinese, containing a long history and rich cultural connotations.

Spring Festival is commonly called Guo Nian. In the long history of 2,000 years, Chinese New Year customs have undergone a developing process of germination, formation, change, and transition.
Chinese New Year is the most important and longest holiday in China. Chinese will begin celebrating on the New Year's Eve and the celebrations will last for 15 days.

Legend says the celebrations of Chinese New Year may be related to a beast known as Nian. The beast Nian came out to eat people on new years until an old man found a way to conquer it. Then people started to observe and celebrate Chinese New Year. The word "Nian" now has the same meaning as Chinese New Year, which is used as commonly as Chinese New Year. And people often use the term "Guo Nian", which may originally mean "passed or survived the Nian". Now everyone loves Guo Nian

The Origin

Since Chinese New Year is the first day of the lunar calendar, it is also called the Lunar New Year. Also, it is referred to as the Spring Festival since it is the beginning of the Spring, which is the first term of the 24 terms on the lunar canlendar.

It was recorded that Chinese started to celebrate Chinese New Year from about 2000 BC, though the celebrations were held on different times under different emperors. Pre-Qin period is the germinating time of New Year customs. At that time, people held celebrations after agricultural affairs were finished as a sacrificial activity to thank gods' bestowment. "July," The Book of Songs, records the festival customs at the turn of two years in the period of Western Zhou ( 1046-771 BC ), when people offered luscious wind and lamb to gods as reward for their blessing and obligation during the past year and as invocation for favorable weather and bumper harvest in the oncoming year. There was not a fixed date for these celebrations because different states used different calendars. But it's around the time in winter when agriculture was not so busy. It is the embryo of New Year customs in later generations.

They started to celebrate Chinese New Year on the first day of the lunar calendar based on Emperor Wu Di's almanac of the Han Dynasty. It was then that New Year customs were finalized since the social tumult at the end of Warring States of Western Han in 206 BC-AD 25 adopted rehabilitation policy which restored social order. People were more hopeful about their life and so a series of festive customs got to be formed. The adoption of Taichu Calendar the Chinese invented a calendar system where the first day of the first lunar month as the first day of a year.

As a result, god worshipping, sacrificing and celebrating activities that used to be held at different time in late winter or early spring were gradually unified to be held on the first day of the first lunar month. With the development of times, New Year customs on the first day of the first lunar month were getting more and more interesting from Han Dynasty to Southern and Northern dynasties. The Spring Festival gradually developed into the most important festival in China.

The Year of the Zodiac

The lunar calendar is represented by twelve animals. Each year is represented by one animal. The 12 animals in order are: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Chinese zodiac is also based on the 12 animals.

The lunisolar Chinese calendar determines Chinese New Year dates. The calendar is also used in countries that have adopted or have been influenced by Han culture (notably the Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese) and may have a common ancestry with the similar New Years festivals outside East Asia such as Iran, and historically, the Bulgars lands.

Things Chinese Do

Here is a list of things or traditions Chinese may do around Chinese New Year.

1. Preparation

Usually the preparation starts a month before the new year. The preparation includes thoroughly cleaning and decorating the house, buying new clothes, preparing enough food for at least two weeks. The decorations are highly symbolic with a lot of lucky words, printed paintings and red colors everywhere. Kids are busy in shopping for different kinds of firecrackers. Everyone gets a haircut before the new year. So everything and everyone looks new and fresh on the new year.

2. New Year Fu

The Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. The character put on paper can be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese the "reversed fu" is homophonic with "fu comes", both being pronounced as "fudaole." What's more, two big red lanterns can be raised on both sides of the front door. Red paper-cuttings can be seen on window glass and brightly colored New Year paintings with auspicious meanings may be put on the wall.

3. Firecrackers

Firecrackers are set off as soon as the new year arrives. You can hear or see firecrackers everywhere and this usually lasts for a few hours. Some people will continue to play firecrackers occasionally through out the first half of the first month. Traditionally fireworks are the sign of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new. Fireworks are now banned in China, so this tradition is history.

4. Red Packets

Giving red packets during Chinese new year is another tradition. A red packet is simply a red envelope with money in it, which symbolizes luck and wealth. Red packets are typically handed out to younger generation by their parents, grand parents, relatives, and even close neighbors and friends.

5. New Year Greetings

Chinese New Year is also the time for socializing. People usually wear new clothes and go out to visit and greet their relatives and friends, so the streets are filled with a lot of cheerful people. The greetings and visitings can go on for a few days. The two most popular greetings during the Chiese New Year celebration season are, in Mandarin: "Gong Xi Fa Cai", and "Xin Nian Kuai Le". These roughly mean "Congratulations and be prosperous financially", and "Happy New Year".

6. Dragon and Lion Dancing

Dragon and Lion dancing is another tradition of Chinese New Year.

7. Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival or Yuan Xiao Festival is on the 15th of the first month of Chinese New Year, which marks the end of the New Year celebrations. Chinese celebrate the first full moon of the year on this day. It is the time for family reunion again. Yuan xiao is also a kind of cake, which looks like a miniature table tennis ball made of sticky rice with sweet stuffing inside. Everyone eats a few on Lantern Festival, which symbolizes family will stick together. <

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