When you ask the people around you, what is the most important festival in China, I guess 99% of the people will say the same answer, the Spring Festival. There is an old story about Spring Festival. It is said that the monster, named Nian, will attack people from time to time. In order to drive it away, people have to light up firecrackers and put some Red paper on the front door and window at the last day of the Chinese year. Luckily, the monster, Nian, is afraid of the sound of the firecrackers and the color red; dare not to come any more. In order to memorialize this day, our ancestors decided that the first lunar calendar day of the Chinese Year is the Spring Festival.
During the Spring Festival, all the member of the family will get together on the eve to have a big dinner. Fish, apple, noodle, dumplings, poke, chicken, candies and so on are indispensable on the table. Fish stands for wealth and rich of the coming year, apple stands for doing things smoothly, noodle stands for good health and long live, as to the others, they all symbolize for the lucky and happiness of the coming year.
Children are the happiest ones during the Spring Festival, not only they can have lots of companies but also they can have lucky money on the festival. With the lucky money, they can do whatever they want, such as to set off the firecrackers, wear new clothes, use their lucky money to buy the things they want; this is the best part of the Spring Festival, isn’t it?
The Spring Festival is not only means the beginning of the brand-new year, but also carrying the best wish of the people’s. We are hoping in the New Year our wish will come true, our life will become better. Anyway, the most meaningful thing of the Spring Festival is that we spend the time with the family, the people we love and we know that’s all about.
Spring Festival is my favorite among all the Chinese traditional festival. The first reason why I love it the most is because I can get lucky money on that festival. It is the Chinese custom that the old will give children lucky money on Spring Festival to wish a good luck for the young generation. Moreover, people everywhere on those days are full of happiness. Quarrel, fight and abuse are almost disappeared at that time. Meanwhile, my mother will make a big meal for us to celebrate. Everyone will forget the unhappy thing they meet, instead remembering to appreciate life to wish a better future. That is my favorite festival.
The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West.
The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the peoples sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one.
Strictly speaking, the Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of the 12th lunar month and will last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next year. Of them, the most important days are Spring Festival Eve and the first three days.Most people will have a week off , thus, this time is known as golden week.
“Dust”(尘)is homophonic with “chen”(陈)in Chinese, which means old and past. In this way, “sweeping the dust” before the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. Chinese People believe that in order to receive the new luck, you have to swipe the bad luck. All the cleaning has to be done before the end of New Year’s Eve, that’s what Chinese people always called “Ci Jiu Ying Xin”: saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new.
After the thoroughly clean up, people will paste paper-cut decorations on the windows and doors. Paper-cuts, usually with auspicious patterns, give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival and express the good wishes of Chinese people looking forward to a good life. It is common for Chinese to paste the character “fu(福)”, big and small, on walls, doors and doorposts around the houses. “Fu(福)” shows people’s yearning toward a good life. Some people’s yearning toward a good life. Some people even invert the character “Fu(福)” to signify that blessing has arrived because “inverted” is a homonym for “arrive” in Chinese.
“The Spring Couplet”, also called “couplet” and “a pair of antithetical phrases”, is a special form of literature in China. The Spring Couplet is composed of two antithetical sentences on both sides of the door and a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription, usually an auspicious phrase, above the gate. Whether the family is rich or poor, educated or ignorant, everyone must put on the Spring Couplet to symbolize the hopes for the coming new year.