Chinese Spring Festival, also called Lunar New Year,has more than 4,000 years of history. Being one ofthe traditional Chinese festivals, it is the grandestand the most important festival for Chinese people. It isalso the time for the whole families to get together, which issimilar with Christmas Day to the westerners. Originatingduring the Shang Dynasty (about 17th – 11th century BC),Spring Festival, which celebrates family reunion, is full ofrich and colorful activities, and new hopes with the adventof spring and flowers blossoming. People from differentregions and different ethnic groups celebrate it in theirunique ways.

Festival Time
The Spring Festival comes on the first day of Chineselunar calendar and lasts for almost half of a month. But infolk custom, this traditional holiday lasts from the 23rd dayof the twelfth month to the 15th day of the first month(Lantern Festival) in the lunar calendar. Among these days,the New Year’s Eve and the first day of the New Year is thepeak time of the festival. The exact days are different inevery year according to the lunar calendar. Schedule ofSpring Festival in recent years is offered in the followingtable.Chinese New Year begins according to the Chinesecalendar which consists of both Gregorian and lunar-solarcalendar systems. Because the track of the new moonchanges from year to year, Chinese New Year can beginanytime between late January and mid-February.

Below isa chart that shows the beginning day of Chinese New Yearand the animal sign for that year.Chinese New Year is the longest and most importantfestivity in the Chinese calendar. The origin of ChineseNew Year is itself centuries old and gains significancebecause of several myths and traditions. Chinese New Yearis celebrated in China and in countries and territories withsignificant Chinese populations, including Hong Kong,Macau, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan,Mauritius, Philippines, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere.Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for theChinese and has had influence on the lunar new yearcelebrations of its geographic neighbors.Within China, regional customs and traditionsconcerning the celebration of the Chinese new year varywidely.

People will pour out their money to buy presents,decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is alsotraditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse thehouse, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to makeway for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will bedecorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets withpopular themes of “good fortune” or “happiness”, “wealth”,and “longevity.” On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper isa feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs,ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will endthe night with firecrackers. Early the next morning,children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthyand happy new year, and receive money in red paperenvelopes.

The Chinese New Year tradition is to reconcile,forget all grudges and sincerely wish peace and happinessfor everyone.Although the Chinese calendar traditionally does not usecontinuously numbered years, outside China its years areoften numbered from the reign of the Yellow Emperor. Butat least three different years numbered 1 are now used byvarious scholars, making the year beginning in 2012 AD the”Chinese Year” 4710, 4709, or 4649.Every family does a thorough house cleaning andpurchases enough food, including fish, meat, roasted nutsand seeds, all kinds of candies and fruits, etc, for thefestival period. Also, new clothes must be bought,especially for children. Red scrolls with complementarypoetic couplets, one line on each side of the gate, are pastedat every gate. The Chinese character ‘Fu’ is pasted on thecenter of the door and paper-cut pictures adorn windows.

Taboos
The Spring Festival is a new start for a new year, so it isregarded as the omen of a new year. People have manytaboos during this period. Many bad words related to”death”, “broken”, “killing”, “ghost” and “illness” or”sickness” are forbidden during conversations. In someplaces, there are more specific details. They consider itunlucky if the barrel of rice is empty, because they thinkthey will have nothing to eat in the next year. Takingmedicine is forbidden on this day, otherwise, people willhave sick for the whole year and take medicine constantly.

Festival Food
Food during this festival has its characteristics, which isthe representative of Chinese festival food culture.Dumplings and the reunion dinner are indispensable atthis time. Cold and hot dishes are all served. Fish is alwaysan important dish then, which expresses people’s hope ofhaving a wealthy new year.

History
It is said that the custom of Spring Festival started inwhen people offered sacrifice to ancestors in the last monthof Chinese lunar calendar. At that time, people preparedthe sacrifice by doing thorough cleaning, having bathesand so on. Later, people began to worship different deitiesas well on that day. It is the time that almost all the farmworks were done and people have free time. The sacrificingtime changed according to the farming schedule and wasnot fixed until the Han Dynasty (202BC-220AD). Thecustoms of worshipping deities and ancestors remainseven though the ceremonies are not as grand as before. It isalso the time that spring is coming, so people held all kindsof ceremonies to welcome the spring.

Legends
There are many legends about the festival in Chineseculture. In folk culture, the Spring Festival is also called”guonian” (meaning “passing a year”). It is said that the “nian”(year) was a strong monster which was fierce and cruel andate one kind of animal including human being a day. Humanbeings were scared about it and had to hide on the eveningwhen the “nian” came out. Later, people found that “nian” wasvery scared about the red color and fireworks. So after that,people use red color and fireworks or firecrackers to driveaway “nian” every year. As a result, the custom of using redcolor and setting off fireworks remains.

Festivities Schedule
Preparing the New Year starts 7 days before the NewYear’s Eve. According to Chinese lunar calendar, peoplestart to clean the house on Dec. 24, butcher on Dec. 26th andso on. People have certain things to do on each day. Thesefestival activities will end Jan. 15th of the lunar calendar.