Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year)
1 min readThe Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year, has more than 4,000 years of history. It is an important festival celebrated at the turn of the Chinese (lunar) calendar. It falls on the Ist day of the 1st lunar month (usually between late January and early February) each year. It is the most important festival for the Chinese people and it is the time when all family members join together, similar to Christmas which is celebrated in western countries. Before the New Year begins, people completely clean the indoors and outdoors of their homes in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for good incoming luck. Then people write Spring Festival couplets in black characters on red paper and paste them on their doors and windows, wishing for good fortune, happiness, wealth,longevity and bright future. The Chinese character“Fu” and red lanterns are also placed on the doors. The whole family will sit together for the annual reunion dinner at Spring Festival Eve and watch the Spring Festival party. The reunion dinner is believed to be the most important meal of the year. People will also set off fireworks around midnight to welcome the New Year, called “Shousui”.
Customs: Making New Year’s’ visits, sending New Years’ greetings, giving pocket money to children, pasting Spring Festival couplets, eating dumplings.
