PrefaceThe New Year is Coming / 004Chapter I Origination of the Chinese New Year / 013Section 1 Origins of the Chinese New Year / 014Section 2 Legends of New Year’s Eve and Shou Sui / 017Section 3 The Twelve Zodiacs and the Chinese New Year / 021Chapter II Celebrating the New Year / 027Section 1 The 8th Day of the 12th Lunar Month:Celebrating the Laba Festival with Sweet Laba Porridge / 028Section2 The 23rd Day of the 12th Lunar Month: Worshipping the God of Kitchen with Candies / 031Section 3 The 24th Day of the 12th Lunar Month:Cleaning the House / 036Section 4 The 25th Day of the 12th Lunar Month: Making Tofu, or Bean Curd / 040Section 5 The 26th Day of the 12th Lunar Month: Butchering Pigs / 043Section 6 The 27th Day of the 12th Lunar Month: Killing Chicken for Good Luck / 046Section 7 The 28th Day of the 12th Lunar Month: Steaming Bread and Rice Cakes / 049Section 8 The 29th Day of the 12th Lunar Month: Visiting Friends and Drinking Alcohol / 053Section 9 New Year’s Eve:Peace and Good Luck / 056Section 10 The 1st Day of the First Lunar Month: Paying New Year Visits / 060Section 11 The 2nd Day of the First Lunar Month: Showing Gratitude to Parents / 063Section 12 The 3rd Day of the First Lunar Month: Wedding Day of the Rat / 067Section 13 The 4th Day of the First Lunar Month: The Return of the God of Kitchen / 071Section 14 The 5th Day of the First Lunar Month: The Reception of the God of Fortune / 0Section 15 The 6th Day of the First Lunar Month: Sending Away the God of Poverty / 077Section 16 The 7th Day of the First Lunar Month: Going on an Outing / 081Chapter III Spring Festival and Celebration Activities / 085Section 1 Different Nationalities Celebrate the Same Spring Festival / 086Section 2 Spring Festival Travel Rush, the Largest Periodic Migration of Human Beings / 091Section 3 Spring Festival Temple Fair Brings Supreme Fun / 095Section 4 Firecrackers and Fireworks / 100Section 5 Dragon and Lion Dances / 103Section 6 Shehuo, a Show in the Rural Areas of China / 107Section 7 New Year’s Gala on New Year’s Eve / 111 Section 8 Golden Week for Traveling Around / 116 Section 9 Door God and Fu / 118Section 10 Red Packet / 122Section 11 Flowers for Worshiping Gods / 126Chapter IV Chinese New Year Feast / 131Section 1 The Family Reunion Dinner on New Year’s Eve / 132 Section 2 Jiaozi, a Must-have for the Spring Festival / 136 Section 3 Rice cake, Tangyuan, Spring Rolls Indicating peoplesWish for a Better Life / 139Chapter V Celebrating the Spring Festival with Wishes for Happiness and Good Luck / 143Section 1 Auspicious Designs / 144Section 2 Spring Couplets on Red Paper / 150Section 3 New Year Paintings / 155
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The New Year is ComingCelebrating the new year is always the top priority of the Chinese people, and other things, however important, will be postponed.“Amid the boom of f irecrackers, a year comes to an end, and the spring wind wafts warm breath to the wine. While the rising sun shines over each and every household, people will replace old peachwood charms with new ones.” Wang Anshi, a poet in the Song Dynasty(960-1279), depicted all the hustle and bustle of the festival in his poem, and highlighted its lasting theme— ringing out the old and ushering in the new. It is the charm of the most im- portant festival among the Chinese people. Throughout China’s history, what the Spring Festival means for the Chinese people, poor or rich, has always been family reunion. Family is what the Chinese people find hardest to part from. Reserved as they are, they get the opportunity of the Spring Festival to show their love for the family via family reunion. Imbued with the Chinese people’s deepest affection and simplest wishes, the Spring Festival has become the most important traditional festival for thousands of years as well as the most influential holiday across the world.As an ancient festival with enduring appeal, the Spring Festival has long been celebrated outside China. Asian neighbors or countries that have close ties with China also celebrate the festival with firecrackers and fireworks, dragon and lion dances. They also add their cultural elements to this festival, making it more attractive. In Chinese settlements and China Towns around the world, the festival has always been the most important holiday to show the home- sickness of overseas Chinese.It is easy for one to associate the Spring Festival, with Christmas in the West, which is also a reunion holiday. In every December, more than 100 countries and regions around the world will become busy for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Then on the night of December 24th, they will celebrate Christmas Eve. At Christmas, the Western people will have a home feast for family reunion and toast each other, which is quite similar to the reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve in China.The Chinese people will stay up and watch the CCTV New Year’s Gala after the reunion dinner while the Western people will hold parties on Christmas Eve, singing, dancing, hugging and wishing each other around the hearth. Celebrations of Christmas Eve will culminate with the bell ringing, while the same is true of New Year’s Eve in China, when the bell rings and fireworks and firecrackers are set off.In China, the northerners often eat dumplings (Jiaozi) while the southerners, glue puddings (Tangyuan) to celebrate the new year. Both of them are symbols of auspice, reunion, good luck and happiness. As for Christmas in the West, turkey is a must-have, as the Western people consider it a token of good luck in the coming year.The Spring Festival is the favorite holiday among Chinese children as they can get red packets from the elder, while Western children also look forward to Christmas as they believe Santa Claus will climb in through the chimney and bring them unexpected gifts.The Spring Festival and Christmas share the same theme: family reunion and hope for the future. By celebrating the festival, people across the world all wish for happiness, reunion and peace.Passed down for thousands of years, the Spring Festival in China and Christmas in the West both represent the continuation of those good wishes and affection and the inheritance of culture and belief.