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1.
The Festival I
Like Best
A
major
winter-time
celebration
where
relatives
gather
together
to
eat
plenty
of
delicious
food
in
houses
decorated
in
red.
Does
this
sound
familiar?
No, I'm not
talking about Christmas.
With the new lunar year just begun,
this is a good time to take a closer
look at the biggest celebration you can
find on the Chinese calendar: the
Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival,
as it is more often called in China.
This year, the new lunar year begins on
February the 14th. On this day,
Chinese
families gather together to bid farewell to the
outgoing Ox Year
and welcome the Year
of the Tiger with traditions passed down through
generations.
Flattery and
firecrackers
But
what
does
the
Chinese
New
Year
mean
to
the
Chinese?
And
how
important
are
ancient
traditions
on
this
occasion?
Radio86
asked
two
Chinese, Gao Sixin and Zhu Lidong, to
tell us more.
“I think the Spring
Festival is like the Western Christmas. We
celebrate in
the same way, but just
at different times,” says Zhu
Lidong.
He
is
32
years
old
and
comes
from
Tianjin,
but
now
lives
in
the
neighboring capital city, where he
works as a senior software engineer.
Gao Sixin nods while Zhu explains.
34-year-old Gao
is a Chinese language teacher living in Finland.
She is
originally from
Qingdao, but has lived in both Beijing
in the north and
Guangzhou in the south
of China.
Asked what they like best
about the Spring Festival, she replies:
“H
aving new clothes and
going to visit people. When everybody dresses
up
and
visits
different
people
and
they
say
'ah,
you
have
really
cool
clothes, oh, your hair looks so good,'
that is the best part for me!,” she
laughs
and
also
mentions
the
red
envelopes
containing
money,
or
hong
bao, that children and young unmarried
people receive.
And what does Zhu enjoy
most about the New Year?
“Making New
Year phone calls to the eldest members in the
family and
setting off firecrackers!”
Family means everything
“This
New Year, I
will be in Finland,” Gao says. “But I hope that
some
year I'll be able to travel to
China for the New Year because my Finnish
husband really wants to see how we
celebrate it there. He has not seen it
yet.”
Staying
in
Finland
does
not
keep
Gao
from
celebrating
the
Lunar
New
Year the Chinese way.
“I think I will follow the Chinese
tradition and make dumplings at home
and have some Chinese New Year
decorations.”
Zhu
will
travel
to
his
hometown,
Tianjin,
to
eat
stuffed
dough
balls,
called dumplings,
with his family.
Gao
and
Zhu
agree
that
it
is
of
the
greatest
importance
to
spend
the
holiday
season with relatives.
“The Chinese New
Year is important and the family is also
important, and
those two important
things should be together,” Gao
explains
.
Just
like
Gao
and
Zhu,
most
people
in
China
prefer
to
be
with
their
families
during
the
Spring
Festival.
Millions
of
Chinese
mobilize
themselves at the
same time to get home for the festival, and the
result is
pretty close to complete
chaos.
Zhu has a relatively short train
trip from Beijing to Tianjin, but he knows
how confusing it can be when hordes of
people suddenly decide to travel
at the
same time.
“A
lot
of
people
work
far
away
from
their
families,
realizing
their
Chinese dream. And
when Spring Festival comes around, they all want
to
go home. Even if they only manage to
get standing tickets for the train
they
are fine, because they are going home,” he
explains.
Also
Gao
has
had
the
debatable
pleasure
of
having
to
travel
from
the
south to
the northern part of the country to get home for
the New Year's
celebration.
“When I was a student, I could not
afford to buy plane tickets. The trains
were really, really full, but I was
still pretty lucky in that that I always
managed to get a train ticket,” she
r
ecalls.
Cook, shop and
dress up
Like Christmas, the Chinese
Spring Festival calls for a lot of preparation.
“Maybe
there
is
a
difference
between
men
and
women.
I
think
traditionally, housewives start to
prepare everything something like three
weeks
before
the
New
Year,”
Gao
says
and
compares
the
Chinese
with
Westerners
who
often
start
decorating,
baking
and
buying
gifts
several
weeks before
Christmas Eve.
The
preparations
for
the
Spring
Festival
include
cooking,
cleaning
the
whole house, buying new
clothes and perhaps a haircut. The homes and
their
inhabitants
have
to
be
fresh
and
clean
when
welcoming
the
new
year.
It is also necessary to do some big-
time grocery shopping before the party
kicks
in.
Chinese
shops,
which
are
normally
almost
always
open,
close
their
doors for the peak of the festival.
New
notes for a new year
Food,
clothes,
decorations
and
gifts
for
friends
and
relatives;
all
this
costs money. This is
also the reason why most Chinese companies give
their employees a bonus on top of their
salaries for the New Year.
“I think
almost all companies give money. Sometimes it's
big money, or
sometimes very little
like 200 or 600 yuan. It depends on the company,”
Gao says.
The
Chinese
New
Year
is
not
all
about
the
money,
but
it
plays
an
important role. Even
children think a lot about money.
“The
elder
give
money
to
younger
people
and
children
in
the
family.
I
think
it
symbolizes
blessing
them
with
luck
for
the
new
year.
Usually
they give some 100 or 200 yuan,” Zhu
describes.
The
notes
come
in
a
red
envelope,
usually
decorated
with
the
animal
symbolizing the coming year, this year,
a tiger. For children, receiving the
red
envelope
is
the
climax
of
the
Chinese
New
Year,
exactly
like
Christmas presents are
for kids on this side of the globe.
“When I was litt
le, I got
very happy if I got one yuan. But of course now
one yuan is nothing. Normally I give my
relatives, the little children, 100
yuan, that is the normal amount now,”
Gao says.
This
time
of
year,
China's
printing
presses
work
day
and
night
to
print
brand new money for
the red envelopes, since fresh notes are
preferred.
“New
means
a
new
start
for
a
new
year.
It
is
as
simple
as
that,”
Zhu
explains.
No red underwear
When
it
comes
to
turning
your
back
to
the
old
year
and
opening
your
arms
to embrace a new one, every thing and every act
carries a meaning.
Some think that it
is bad luck to break a plate or have a lunch nap
on New
Year's Day, while others do not
take the old customs too seriously.
But
practically
all
Chinese
believe
that
the
color
red
brings
good
luck,
happiness and
prosperity.
“I think the Chinese people
also use the red color to scare off evil spirits
or ghosts. So, if they are away, of
course you are lucky.”
Gao
says that it is not necessary to wear the lucky
color to be lucky. It is
enough to
decorate the house in red, for instance, with
posters with the
characters for luck,
happiness and prosperity.
Some people also wear red underwear to
make sure that good fortune will
come
their way. Gao says that she has heard about this
custom.
“I don't have red underwear,
but maybe I should try that!”
Zhu just laughs. He has never heard of
such a rule.
Do you dare to wash your
hair?
On
New
Year's
Day,
there
are
indeed
very
many
rules
and
customs
to
dictate
what
you
should
do
and
especially
what
you
should
absolutely
abstain from
doing.
Never buy shoes during the
Lidong
Many believe that, for example,
on that day, women should not touch a
knife, the floors should not be swept
and that you should not wash your
hair.
Zhu
has
never
heard
of
these
rules.
But
he
knows
about
some
other
taboos.
“One is, don't cut
your hair during the festival, the second is never
buy
shoes during the festival.”
He explains that to buy
shoes is called xie in Chinese. But the word can
also sound like “very sad.”
“
So
if
you
buy
shoes,
it
means
that
you
will
buy
a
sad
destiny
for
the
coming
year.”
“I have never heard
that shoe story before,” Gao states. “But I have
heard
that you cannot wash your hair or
sweep the floors then. I don't take it so
seriously, but my mo
m
follows these rules.”
Neither Gao nor Zhu are scared that
they'll rinse away their good luck by
washing their hair on New Year's Day.
Not about religion
According
to
Chinese
tradition,
the
Spring
Festival
lasts
15
days
and
includes
special
occasions
like
the
Son-in-
Law
Day,
the
Red-
Dog
Day
and Mice Wedding
Day, the Days for the God of the Stove and the God
of
Wealth, Clear-Water Master Day, the
Birthday of Humanity, the Birthday
of
the
Jade
Emperor,
the
Death
Anniversary
of
General
Kuan
Yu
and
many more.
In addition, there are special days
dedicated to eating, days for taking a
break
and
some
even
reserve
a
special
day
for
having
diarrhea
after
gorging
on
the
rich
New
Year's
cuisine.
On
the
15th
day,
the
Lantern
Festival begins.
Gao remembers how important the Spring
Festival was in her childhood
home.
“When I was little, I lived in a very
small village. They are farmers in that
village, and my mom had to cook
everyday for our guests. It lasted for
almost
the
entire
two
weeks.
We
invited
different
neighbors
over
everyday, and my mom was just cooking
all day long. My dad was just
drinking
with them, sometimes he was invited over by
others, sometimes
we
invited
them.
It
really
lasted
the
whole
two
weeks.
It's
exhausting,
really.
But
you
do
get
to
eat
some
really
good
food
during
those
two
weeks,” she
laughs.
Many
of
the
traditions
related
to
the
Spring
Festival
stem
from
the
Chinese
belief
system
Taoism.
In
old
rural
China,
farmers
laid
all
their
hopes of an abundant
harvest on the goodwill of the gods.
Today,
though,
the
gods
no
longer
play
such
a
big
role
in
the
festival.
Like
Christmas
in
most
Western
countries,
it
has
become
more
of
a
cultural celebration,
where religion does not play a leading role
anymore.
“Maybe
we
can
say
that
it's
half
religious
and
the
other
half
is
folk
customs,”
Gao says.
“I
don't
think
it's
a
religious
celebration. We
just
enjoy
the
festival
and
feel
relaxed,” Zhu explains.
Gao
nods and continues:
“It is mainly about
being with the family and eating good
food
2.
What Money
Means To Me