Chinese New Year is also referred to as the Spring Festival and is the most traditional and celebrated festival in China. To get ready for the new year ahead, Chinese families are busy spring cleaning the house to get rid of any bad luck in the year before, decorating the entrance doors with the guarding gods to safeguard the family and fend off any bad spirits, putting festive greetings “fai chun” around the house and prepare the new year feast for the family gathering. When the New Year arrives, plentiful celebration events, including the lion dance, fireworks and lantern displays, are staged to enhance the festive atmosphere until the middle of the month.
Chinese New Year Myths
There are many Chinese New Year myths, the most legendary of which is the Chinese zodiac story.
According to the myth, a strange beast often threatened our ancient ancestors. This evil beast is called “year.” Its head is as fierce as a lion’s, and its body sturdy as an elephant’s. It has endless power, and it can move the mountain with a single roar!
This mighty beast captures other creatures for food. When winter arrives, he fails to capture the creatures in hibernation, and food quickly runs out. Consequently, he makes his way to the valley to harass the peasants. At first, the beast only preys on cattle for food, but eventually, it feeds on the peasants.
As time went by, the peasants spotted the beast’s weakness. They discovered the beast had three fears – the colour red, bright light and sparkles and loud bangs. They then had a cunning plan; when winter came and the beast made his way down the mountain, each house was decorated in red, and the peasants would dance, cheer and make loud noises. The plan indeed worked, and the beast was scared away by the firecrackers that sent bright sparkles in the darkness of the night and deafening loud bangs. The villagers’ happy cheers and music formed special powers to eliminate the beast and allowed them to live in harmony after that.
On the following day, all the villagers went out of their homes to send good wishes to each other and started to celebrate with festive wine and a feast.
To celebrate their success, the villagers decorated their houses with red greetings and festive slogans, lit candles and lanterns, and played loud music every winter to fend off evil spirits. This then became New Year’s Eve, and the following day became New Year’s Day, celebrated with family gatherings, families wishing each other, and kids wearing new clothes. The tradition was passed from one generation to another for centuries.
New Year Customs
The most common Chinese New Year customs include:
