Origin: Spring Festival originated in
the sacrificial ceremony held shortly after the winter
solstice during the early Xia Dynasty (21st-16th century
BC), when China was still in the primitive society. The
ritual was designed to repay the blessings of the god
and celebrate bumper harvests. Today, it has become the
foremost of all traditional festivals for the Chinese
people.
What’s On: Right before the festival
sets in, people are already busy grocery shopping, making
new clothes, paying tribute to the Kitchen God and ancestors,
preparing the family reunion banquet, pasting New Year
couplets on gateposts or door panels, and pinning up New
Year paintings on walls. During the festival, they visit
each other and exchange New Year’s greetings. Firecrackers
are let off to liven up the atmosphere. A lot of dining
and wining takes place during the festival, and every
family make and eat New Year’s cakes (made of glutinous
rice flour), dumplings and sweet dumplings. There are
dragon, lion, and yangge dances and lantern shows in both
urban and rural areas, as merry-makers bid farewell to
old year and wish for a good beginning in the new year,
exorcise evil spirits and pestilence, and pray for good
harvests and good luck in the new year.
Papercuts: During Spring Festival, many
families decorate the window panes of their houses with
pleasant-looking papercuts portraying Chinese opera characters,
flowers, birds, insects and fish.
New Year Couplets: New Year couplets,
written on strips of red paper, are a major part of the
Chinese Spring Festival custom. On the lunar New Year’s
Eve, families in urban and rural areas alike make it a
point to grace their gate posts or door panels with couplets
composed of two sentences which match each other in sound
and sense to express their cherished wishes.
New Year’s Paintings: New Year’s
paintings are a branch of Chinese folk art which draws
inspirations from such things as bumper harvests, prosperity,
landscape, flowers and birds, buffaloes, and babies. During
the festival, the Chinese love to pin up a few New Year’s
paintings on their living room walls to bid farewell to
the old year and greet the new.
Jiaozi: Jiaozi, or dumplings, is a typical
Chinese food. It is the habit of people living in north
China to celebrate festivals by making and eating dumplings.
On New Year’s Eve entire families would gather to
chat while preparing dumplings. Afterwards they would
stay up late or all night to see the old year out and
the New Year in.
