Chinese New Year

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This year the Chinese New Year will be on January 26, 2009. I do not know for my western counterparts here, I am sure most of us Chinese will be looking forward to this special day and it is the most important holiday of the Chinese. Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is sometimes called the Lunar New Year, especially by people outside China. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. This day is celebrated in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Taiwanese people, Koreans, Mongolians, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, and formerly the Japanese before 1873. In Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other countries with significant Chinese populations, Chinese New Year is also celebrated, largely by overseas Chinese, and has, to varying degrees, become part of the traditional culture of these countries. There are a few Chinese customs that we Chinese observe: Chinese New Year Eve The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the dinner every family will have. A dish consisting of fish will appear on the tables of Chinese families. It is for display for the New Year's Eve dinner. This meal is comparable to Thanksgiving dinner in the West. In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (jiaozi) after dinner and have it around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape is like a Chinese tradition "Taels" . By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a New Year Cake (Nian Gao) after dinner and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the new year. Nian Gao in Chinese literally means increasingly prosperous year in year out. After the dinner, some families go to local temples, hours before the new year begins to pray for a prosperous new year; however in modern practice, many households hold parties and even hold a countdown to the new lunar year. Traditionally, couples dread this day as they will have to attend 2 reunion dinners and as it is a sumptuous spread - overeating is a common headache. However, families are more understanding and getting ingenious nowadays. So the married daughter's family will be allowed and have an earlier reunion feast with their birth parents. First Day The first day of Chinese New Year is a time when families visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended family, usually their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents. Many people, especially devout Buddhists, abstain from meat consumption on the first day because it is believed that this will ensure longevity for them. It also symbolizes a purity start of the new year. Members of the family who are married also give red packets containing cash to junior members of the family, mostly children and teenagers. Even unmarried singles will get these red packets nowadays as they are regarded as children still. Lion dances and firecrackers are both common and popular with the celebrations here. Some families will have lion dances to make the celebration more grand. However, as all observance, the ritual is believed to evict the evil spirits and bad omen from the family's premises. While fireworks and firecrackers are traditionally very popular, some regions have banned them due to concerns over fire hazards, which have resulted in increased number of fires around New Years and challenged municipal fire departments' work capacity. Second Day The second day of the Chinese New Year is for married daughters to visit their birth parents. Traditionally, daughters who have been married may not have the opportunity to visit their birth families frequently. On the second day, the Chinese pray to their ancestors as well as to all the gods. They are extra kind to dogs and feed them well as it is believed that the second day is the birthday of all dogs. Business people of the Cantonese dialect group will hold a 'Hoi Nin' prayer to start their business on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year. The prayer is done to pray that they will be blessed with good luck and prosperity in their business for the year. Third and Fourth Day The third and fourth day of the Chinese New Year are generally accepted as inappropriate days to visit relatives and friends due to the following schools of thought. People may subscribe to one or both thoughts. 1) It is known as "chi kou", meaning that it is easy to get into arguments. It is suggested that the cause could be the fried food and visiting during the first two days of the New Year celebration. 2) Families who had an immediate kin deceased in the past 3 years will not go house-visiting as a form of respect to the dead, but people may visit them on this day. Some people then conclude that it is inauspicious to do any house visiting at all. The third day of the New Year is allocated to grave-visiting instead. Fifth day In northern China, people eat dumplings (Jiao Zi). This is also the birthday of the Chinese god of wealth. In Taiwan, businesses traditionally re-open on this day, accompanied by firecrackers. Seventh day The seventh day, traditionally known as Ren Ri, the Common Man's birthday, the day when everyone grows one year older. It is the day when tossed raw fish salad (yusheng) is eaten. This is a custom primarily among the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Singapore. People get together to toss the colorful salad and make wishes for continued wealth and prosperity. For many Chinese Buddhists, this is another day to avoid meat. Ninth day The ninth day of the New Year is a day for Chinese to offer prayers to the Jade Emperor of Heaven in the Taoist Pantheon. The ninth day is traditionally the birthday of the Jade Emperor. This day is especially important to the Chinese dialect groups - Hokkiens and Teochews (Min Nan speakers). Come midnight of the eighth day of the new year, Hokkiens will offer thanks giving prayers to the Emperor of Heaven. Offerings will include sugarcane as it was the sugarcane that had protected the Hokkiens from certain extermination generations ago. Tea is served as a customary protocol for paying respect to an honored person. Fifteenth day The fifteenth day of the new year is celebrated as Yuan Xiao Jie, otherwise known as Chap Goh Mei in Fujian dialect. Rice dumpling soup Tang Yuan, a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a sweet broth, is eaten on this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. This day is celebrated as the Lantern Festival, and families walk the street carrying lighted lanterns. This day often marks the end of the Chinese New Year festivities. I hope that this post will bring an awareness and understanding of our customs and traditions. To the Chinese, share and contribute if you have interesting customs not mentioned here. To the rest, I hope that you would be encourage to share your views and observations as well. Take care.