What is the Spring Festival？
3 min readSince ancient times，Chinese people have adopted over a hundred kinds of calendars.The most widely observed are the yang li and the yin 1i.The former is the solar or Gregorian calendar that is now in use in various countries，including China.In English，yin li means”the lunar or agricultural calendar.”It has been used in China since the Xia Dynasty for about three or four thousand years.Yin 1iactually contains a mixture of solar and lunar elements.The length of time of the rotation of the moon is counted as a month.There are 12 months in a year of 354days，13 months in a leap year of 384 days.In ancient China，the year was divided into 24 solar periods，each of which is marked by three climatic signs.
Those periods are directly related to farming and have been observed for several thousand years.Currently Chinese use the lunar calendar for the scheduling of holidays such as Chinese New Year（the Spring Festival），the Mid-Autumn Festival，and for divination，including choosing the most auspicious date for a wedding or the grand opening of an important building.
What is the Spring Festival？
The Spring Festival，the Lunar New Year，is the most important traditionalnational festival in China.It is called nian or xinnian（New Year）in Chinese.As originally written，the Chinese character nian means“harvest.”The Spring Festival always falls sometime before or after lichun（the beginning of Spring）.
The celebration of the Spring Festival is more or less similar across the country.People set off firecrackers，which enliven the festival and bring great joy to people，especially to children.Chunlian are spring couplets posted on gates during the Spring Festival.They contain auspicious words such as，”The Best of Things and the Treasures of Heaven”；”Days of Peace，Year In，Year Out”；“A Spring of Good Fortune，This Year，and Every Year.”In addition，New Year pictures are a unique part of the New Year celebrations.Today，farmers and citizens in smal towns sti1l keep the customs of posting these on their doors or on the walls inside their rooms.
During the Spring Festival，the Chinese people eat a lot of good food.In North China，the most popular food is jiaozi，or dumplings.In South China，for breakfast on New Year’s Day，round rice glutinous dumplings are served to signify family reunion.
On the eve of the Spring Festival，it is a folk custom to stay up late or all night，praying for peace in the coming year.That night every house is brightly lit in the hope that anything that might bring people bad fortune will disappear under
the dazzling light.New year is ushered in at midnight，12 o’clock sharp.On thatday，everybody，men and women，old and young，puts on new clothes.When the younger generation extend their New Year greetings to their seniors，the latter give them money wrapped in red paper that is called yasuiqian（money to keep for theyear）.On the second day，after breakfast，there are exchanges of visits between friends and relatives who bring each other New Year cakes，oranges，tangerines，and crunchy candies as gifts.All in all，everyday from New Year’s Eve to the fifteenth day of the first month，there are various entertainments.Lion dances and drum and gong contests are grand events in the New Year celebrations，especially in the countryside.Wedding ceremonies also abound in cities and villages throughout the land at this time.
