Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year Season lasts for an entire month... 

If you live in an area that has a Chinatown, chances are that at some point you've watched the Chinese New Year celebrations. However, Chinese New Year (also called the Spring Festival) doesn't begin and end on a single weekend. Instead, it runs from the middle of the last month of the previous year (based on the Chinese calendar) to the middle of the first month of the new year. By the time the New Year arrives, families have already spent several days preparing for the big event; cleaning the house, buying gifts, and cooking festive foods.

People often wonder why the date for Chinese New Year changes each year. The Chinese calendar is a combination solar/lunar calendar, based on a number of rather complex astronomical calculations, including the longitude of the sun.

Chinese New Year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (all months begin with a new moon). In 2005 (year 4703 on the Chinese calendar) Chinese New Years falls on February 9th.
 
How did Chinese New Year come to be celebrated? According to an ancient legend, people were once tormented by a beast called a Nian - a ferocious creature with an extremely large mouth, capable of swallowing several people in a single bite. Relief from the Nian came only when an old man tricked the beast into disappearing. In reality, New Years festivities probably evolved from a desire to celebrate the end of winter and the fertility and rebirth that come with the spring, much like the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia. Today, New Years is about family reunions and wishing everyone good fortune in the coming year.

The Spring Festival is China's major traditional holiday, and is also celebrated in other parts of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam (where New Year's Day is called "Tet"), Malaysia, Taiwan, and of course, Hong Kong. However, in my research I couldn't find any mention of Chinese New Year's celebrations in Japan. Lisa Heupel, former About Guide to Japanese Culture, came up with a possible reason - apparently the Japanese followed the lunar calendar until the middle of the nineteenth century. However, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, they adopted the Gregorian calendar. Since that time New Years is celebrated on January 1st. While there are other popular festivals celebrating the arrival of spring, such as Hanami or the cherry blossom viewing festival, for the most part Chinese New Year goes unnoticed in Japan, except for a few small celebrations by the Chinese who live there.

Here are some of the ways you can celebrate Chinese New Year (the New Year begins on February 9th in 2005):

Clean House - Before the New Year arrives, the Chinese consider it very important to give the house a thorough cleaning, sweeping away any bad luck that may have accumulated over the past year.

Decorate! - Doors and window panes are also often painted red, considered to be a lucky color. In addition, people like to hang papercuts on doors and windows. (Paper cutting is an ancient Chinese art form dating back to the Han dynasty).

Don't clean for the first few days of the New Year - if you do any sweeping during this time, you risk sweeping away your good luck.

Offer a Sacrifice to the Kitchen God - Many families have a poster of the Kitchen God in their kitchen.

The custom is to offer a ceremonial sacrifice to the Kitchen God, to make sure that he gives a good report on the family's behavior when he returns to heaven. Sticky Cake (Neen Gow) is popular, or children may rub honey on him.

An important tradition on New Year's Eve is for families to gather together and spend the evening preparing Chinese dumplings (Jiaozi). According to Chinese Culture Guide Jun Shan, it is common to hide a coin in one of the dumplings. Whoever gets the dumpling with the coin will supposedly have good luck in the coming year.

Give out money packets - On New Years day, children receive leisee - red packets decorated with gold symbols and filled with "lucky money".

Serve festive foods - Throughout the New Years season, certain foods are served because they symbolize abundance and good fortune. Besides preparing special dishes, tangerines and oranges are often passed out to children and guests, as they symbolize wealth and good luck.

Prepare a Tray of Togetherness - This is a circular tray with eight compartments, each containing symbolic foods such as lotus seeds and lychee nuts, that provides a sweet beginning to the New Year.