春节--Spring Festival

发布者: NCE1-Mary | 发布时间: 2009-12-18 13:23| 查看数: 3156| 评论数: 0|

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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. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees.

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 people's 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. The Chinese government now stipulates people have seven days off for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Many customs accompany the Spring Festival. Some are still followed today, but others have weakened.

On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge, a delicious kind of porridge made with glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job's tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko.

The 23rd day of the 12th lunar month is called Preliminary Eve. At this time, people offer sacrifice to the kitchen god. Now however, most families make delicious food to enjoy themselves.

After the Preliminary Eve, people begin preparing for the coming New Year. This is called "Seeing the New Year in".

Store owners are busy then as everybody goes out to purchase necessities for the New Year. Materials not only include edible oil, rice, flour, chicken, duck, fish and meat, but also fruit, candies and kinds of nuts. What's more, various decorations, new clothes and shoes for the children as well as gifts for the elderly, friends and relatives, are all on the list of purchasing.

Before the New Year comes, the people completely clean the indoors and outdoors of their homes as well as their clothes, bedclothes and all their utensils.

Then people begin decorating their clean rooms featuring an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The content varies from house owners' wishes for a bright future to good luck for the New Year. Also, pictures of the god of doors and wealth will be posted on front doors to ward off evil spirits and welcome peace and abundance.

The Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. The character put on paper can be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese the "reversed fu" is homophonic with "fu comes", both being pronounced as "fudaole." What's more, two big red lanterns can be raised on both sides of the front door. Red paper-cuttings can be seen on window glass and brightly colored New Year paintings with auspicious meanings may be put on the wall.

People attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve. At that time, all family members eat dinner together. The meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively "ji", "yu" and "doufu," mean auspiciousness, abundance and richness. After the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting and watching TV. In recent years, the Spring Festival party broadcast on China Central Television Station (CCTV) is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad. According to custom, each family will stay up to see the New Year in.

Waking up on New Year, everybody dresses up. First they extend greetings to their parents. Then each child will get money as a New Year gift, wrapped up in red paper. People in northern China will eat jiaozi, or dumplings, for breakfast, as they think "jiaozi" in sound means "bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new". Also, the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China. So people eat them and wish for money and treasure.

Southern Chinese eat niangao (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) on this occasion, because as a homophone, niangao means "higher and higher, one year after another." The first five days after the Spring Festival are a good time for relatives, friends, and classmates as well as colleagues to exchange greetings, gifts and chat leisurely.

Burning fireworks was once the most typical custom on the Spring Festival. People thought the spluttering sound could help drive away evil spirits. However, such an activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities once the government took security, noise and pollution factors into consideration. As a replacement, some buy tapes with firecracker sounds to listen to, some break little balloons to get the sound too, while others buy firecracker handicrafts to hang in the living room.

The lively atmosphere not only fills every household, but permeates to streets and lanes. A series of activities such as lion dancing, dragon lantern dancing, lantern festivals and temple fairs will be held for days. The Spring Festival then comes to an end when the Lantern Festival is finished.

China has 56 ethnic groups. Minorities celebrate their Spring Festival almost the same day as the Han people, and they have different customs.

春节俗称“年节”，是中华民族最隆重的传统佳节。自汉武帝太初元年始，以夏年（农历）正月初一为“岁首”（即“年”），年节的日期由此固定下来，延续至今。年节古称“元旦”。１９１１年辛亥革命以后，开始采用公历（阳历）计年，遂称公历１月１日为“元旦”，称农历正月初一为

“春节”。

岁时节日，亦被称为“传统节日”。它们历史悠久、流传面广，具有极大的普及性、群众性、甚至全民性的特点。那么，春节为何成为中华民族最隆重的传统节日呢？年节是除旧布新的日子。年节虽定在农历正月初一，但年节的活动却并不止于正月初一这一天。从腊月二十三（或二十四日）小年节起，人们便开始“忙年”：扫房屋、洗头沐浴、准备年节器具等等。所有这些活动，有一个共同的主题，即“辞旧迎新”。人们以盛大的仪式和热情，迎接新年，迎接春天！

年节也是祭祝祈年的日子。古人谓谷子一熟为一“年”，五谷丰收为“大有年”。西周初年，即已出现了一年一度的庆祝丰收的活动。后来，祭天祈年成了年俗的主要内容之一。而且，诸如灶神、门神、财神、喜神、井神等诸路神明，在年节期间，都备享人间香火。人们借此酬谢诸神过去的关照，并祈愿在新的一年中能得到更多的福佑。年节还是合家团圆、敦亲祀祖的日子。除夕，全家欢聚一堂，吃罢“团年饭”，长辈给孩子们分发“压岁钱”，一家人团坐“守岁”。元日子时交年时刻，鞭炮齐响，辞旧岁、迎新年的活动达于高潮。各家焚香致礼，敬天地、祭列祖，然后依次给尊长拜年，继而同族亲友互致祝贺。元日后，开始走亲访友，互送礼品，以庆新年。年节更是民众娱乐狂欢的节日。元日以后，各种丰富多彩的娱乐活动竞相开展：耍狮子、舞龙灯、扭秧歌、踩高跷、杂耍诸戏等，为新春佳节增添了浓郁的喜庆气氛。此时，正值“立春”前后，古时要举行盛大的迎春仪式，鞭牛迎春，祈愿风调雨顺、五谷丰收。各种社火活动到正月十五，再次形成高潮。

因此，集祈年、庆贺、娱乐为一体的盛典年节就成了中华民族最隆重的佳节。而时至今日，除祀神祭祖等活动比以往有所淡化以外，年节的主要习俗，都完好地得以继承与发展。

词典资料:

Chinese New Year (Chinese: 春節, 春节, Chūnjíe; 農曆新年, 农历新年, Nónglì Xīnnián; or 過年, 过年, Guònián), also known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year's Day, celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar, i.e. the day of the second new moon after the day on which the winter solstice occurs, unless there is an intercalary eleventh or twelfth month in the lead-up to the New Year—in such a case, the New Year falls on the day of the third new moon after the solstice. (The next time this occurs is in 2033.) The Chinese New Year period ends with the Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day of the month.

Some Chinese believe that Nian ("Nyehn") was a reptilian predator that could infiltrate houses silently like the infamous man-eating leopards of India. The Chinese soon learned that Nian was sensitive to loud noises, and they scared it away with explosions and fireworks.

Celebrated internationally in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, Chinese New Year is considered to be a major holiday for the Chinese as well as ethnic groups such as the Mongolians, Koreans, the Miao (Chinese Hmong) and the Vietnamese, who were influenced by Chinese culture in terms of religious and philosophiocal worldview, language and culture in general. Chinese New Year is also the time when the largest human migration takes place when Chinese all around the world return home on Chinese New Year eve to have reunion dinner with their family.Greetings

Around the New Year people greet each other with:

Traditional Chinese: 恭喜發財; Simplified Chinese: 恭喜发财; pinyin: Gōngxǐ fācái; Hokkien: Keong hee huat chye; Cantonese: Kung hei fat choi; Hakka: Kung hee fat choi, which translates to "Congratulations and be prosperous."

Traditional Chinese: 新年快樂; Simplified Chinese: 新年快乐; pinyin: Xīnnián kuàilè, which translates to "Happy new year."

[url=][/url]Traditions

Traditionally, red packets (Mandarin 'hong bao' 紅包; Hokkien 'ang pow' Cantonese 'lai see' 利是;Hakka 'fung bao') are passed out during the Chinese New Year's celebrations, from married couples to unmarried people (usually children). Chinese New Year is celebrated with firecrackers, dragon dances and lion dances. Typically the game of mahjong is played.

[url=][/url]Reunion dinner

A reunion dinner is held on New Year's Eve where members of the family, near and far, get together for celebration. The New Year's Eve dinner is very large and traditionally includes chicken. Fish (魚, yú) is included, but not eaten up completely (and the remaining stored overnight), as the Chinese phrase 年年有魚/餘; (nián nián yǒu yú, or "every year there is fish/leftover") is a homophone for phrases which could mean "be blessed every year" or "have profit every year", since "yú" is also the pronunciation for "profit". A type of black hair-like algae, pronounced "fat choy" in Cantonese, is also featured in many dishes since its name sounds similar to "prosperity". Hakka will serve "kiu nyuk" 扣肉 and "ngiong tiu fu" 釀豆腐. Because the things sound alike, the belief is that having one will lead to the other, like the old child's aphorism "step on a crack, break your mother's back".

[url=][/url]First day of the new year

New Year's day is also celebrated within the family. Usually family members gather on the morning of New Year's Day. It is at this gathering that red packets are given to unmarried members of the family. The age of the recipient is not material to receiving the packets. Married couples usually give out two red packets on the first new year after being married. This is because the wife presents one and the husband presents one. In subsequent years they may give one as a couple.

Red packets traditionally consisted of amounts which were considered multiples. Amounts like $2 (two piece of $1), or $20 were acceptable. Similarly "multiples" such as $1.10 and $2.20 were also acceptable. However, this is not strictly adhered to. The gift was originally a token amount but these days it is not uncommon to receive large sums in affluent families. In some families this tradition has evolved into the practice to substituting money-like instruments (stocks, bonds, unit trust) in place of large sums of cash.

Red packets are also given to unmarried visitors but the sums are often smaller than the packets given to family members or close friends.

[url=][/url]Second day of the new year

The second day of the new year is usually for visiting the family of the wife if a couple is married. A large feast is also typically held on the second day of the new year.

[url=][/url]Seventh day of the new year

The seventh day traditionally is known as the common man's birthday, the day when everyone grows one year older. It is also the day when tossed fish salad, yusheng, is eaten. People get together to toss the colourful salad and make wishes for continued wealth and prosperity. This is only celebrated amongst the Chinese in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Singapore.

[url=][/url]Food

There are many foods in Chinese culture associated with the Chinese New Year. Although preferences vary from region to region, some examples include the following:

Niangao (粘糕) The Chinese word 粘, meaning "sticky", is identical in sound to 年, meaning "year", and the word 糕, meaning "cake" is identical in sound to 高, meaning "high". As such, eating niangao has the symbolism of raising oneself higher in each coming year (年年高升 niánnián gāoshēng). Chinese families who practice Chinese traditional religion also offer niangao to the kitchen god, Zao Jun. It is believed that all the household gods go off to heaven to report on a family during the new year. Serving niangao to the kitchen god is believed to help him provide a sweet report on the family because he will be satisfied and not inclined to deliver criticism — or that his lips are so sticky from the cakes that he is unable to make too much of a report.

Fagao Literally translated as "Prosperity Cake", fagao is made with wheat flour, water, sugar and leavened with either yeast or baking powder. Fagao batter is steamed until it rises and splits open at the top. The sound "fa" means either "to raise/generate" or "be prosperous", hence its well intending secondary meaning.

Jiaozi Dumplings, are small or large mounds of dough that are usually dropped into a liquid mixture (such as soup or stew) and cooked until done, some are stuffed with meat and/or cheese.

Yusheng, a salad of raw fish and shredded crunchy vegetables (such as carrots, jicama, pickled ginger and pomelo) in a plum sauce dressing. Although commonly served in China throughout the year, it was popularised as a Chinese New Year dish in Singapore and Malaysia, a practise which has since spread to other Chinese communities. Originally served only on the seventh day of the new year, it is now eaten on any day, sometimes as early as two weeks prior to the commencement of the new year.

Mandarin oranges (a symbol of wealth and good fortune). The Cantonese word for these oranges is a homonym for gold.

Red Jujubes symbolizes the gaining of prosperity

Whole steamed fish (a symbol of long life and good fortune). This can be seen in wall decorations of fish themes. The word 鱼 (yú), meaning "fish", shares the same pronunciation with the word 余, meaning "surplus" (e.g. having money left over from covering expenses). The common greeting for the new year "niannian you yu" can mean to enjoy a surplus, i.e. financial security, year after year.

Uncut noodles (a symbol of longevity)

Baked goods with seeds (a symbol of fertility)

[url=][/url]Festivities

The New Year season lasts fifteen days. The first week is the most important and most often celebrated with visits to friends and family as well as greetings of good luck. The celebrations end on the important and colourful Lantern Festival on the evening of the 15th day of the month. However, Chinese believe that on the third day (年初三) of the Chinese New Year it is not appropriate to visit family and friends, and call the day "chec hao" (赤口), meaning "easy to get into arguments".

The date of the Chinese New Year is determined by the Chinese calendar, a lunisolar calendar. The same calendar is used in countries that have adopted the Confucian and Buddhism tradition and in many cultures influenced by the Chinese, notably the Koreans, the Tibetans, the Vietnamese and the pagan Bulgars. Chinese New Year starts on the first day of the new year containing a new moon (some sources even include New Year's Eve) and ends on the Lantern Festival fourteen days later. This occurs around the time of the full moon as each lunation is about 29.53 days in duration. In the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, on a date between January 21 and February 21.

[url=][/url]New Year dates

For a more in-depth look at New Year dates, see Chinese Astrology.

The dates of the Spring Festival from 1996 to 2019 (in the Gregorian calendar) are listed below with pinyin romanizations for the earthly branches associated with the animals, which are not their translations.

Animal	Branch	Dates
Rat	Zi	1996 February 19	2008 February 7
Ox	Chou	1997 February 7	2009 January 26
Tiger	Yin	1998 January 28	2010 February 14
Rabbit	Mao	1999 February 16	2011 February 3
Dragon	Chen	2000 February 5	2012 January 23
Snake	Si	2001 January 24	2013 February 10
Horse	Wu	2002 February 12	2014 January 31
Goat	Wei	2003 February 1	2015 February 19
Monkey	Shen	2004 January 22	2016 February 8
Rooster	You	2005 February 9	2017 January 28
Dog	Xu	2006 January 29	2018 February 16
Pig	Hai	2007 February 18	2019 February 5

Many non-Chinese think that they were born in a certain year, when they actually weren't. For example, the 1989 year of the snake began on 6 February 1989. The year 1990 (the year following 1989) is considered by some people to be the year of the horse. However, the 1989 year of the snake officially ended on 26 January 1990, because the zodiac does not end exactly on January 1. This means that anyone born from January 1 to 25 January 1990 was actually born in the year of the snake, not the year of the horse, although some people born during this period are not aware of this fact. This is the case for every year.

Because of this, there are many online Chinese Sign calculators that will give a person an incorrect sign if a January/February date is given, because many calculators only categorize the signs by years and not by exact dates. The following website [1] contains a JavaScript which will give a person an incorrect sign if he or she has a January February month. For example, if January 25, 1976 is entered into the calculator, it will say "dragon" when it should say "rabbit". Yet this inaccurate JavaScript has already been added to hundreds of websites.

See Chinese astrology for a list of Chinese New Year dates for every year from 1900 to 2020, covering one full sexagesimal cycle (1924–1983) and portions of two others.

春节阴历正月初一，是东亚农历的新年，作为中国、日本、韩国、蒙古、越南、老挝、缅甸、柬埔寨、泰国、新加坡等地的最重要的传统节日，春节的诸种习俗广泛保留于东亚各国，一般最流行的说法为过年。起源

过年习俗源自何时很难考究，不过一般认为起源于中国殷商时期年头岁末祭神祭祖活动。农历的正月（1月）是一年的开始，而正月上旬或中旬，大部分情况正好是春季的开始（少部分时间立春是在农历腊月下旬），现在定名为春节；节日具体时间最后的确定相信和这个时间对农业劳作影响最小有关。农历一年的最后一天（月大为30日，月小29日），称之为“大年三十”，除夕晚上全家人团圆吃年饭（农历一年中最后一顿饭），年饭以后有熬年夜（守年岁）和发压岁钱的习俗，表示从农历上年的最后一天守到来年的第一天，因此，对这一节日又称之为过年。

从阳历看,春节在1月21日至2月20日游动。立春在2月4日或2月5日。

小年大年

在民间，特别是农村地区，有过小年和大年的习惯。

小年即农历腊月二十三日，送灶王爷上天（把供奉的灶王画火化），向玉皇大帝报告他所在的一家，在过去一年的表现。为了让灶王爷说好话，要供奉糖瓜，送行时还要用糖糊在他嘴上，让他上天言好事。到除夕再把灶王迎回来，就是请（买）一张新的灶王画（画上画有灶王爷和他的太太灶王奶）供在厨房。画的两侧通常贴一副对联：上天言好事，下界保平安。横批：一家之主。