How the Chinese Celebrate the Chinese New Year (Part One of Two)

With Chinese New Year just two days away, activities for preparation are over and people are getting ready for the celebrations to start. Some people have already begun their celebrations, attending various parades and festivals this past weekend. Families have spent the last few weeks preparing for a reason, the Chinese New Year is not just one day, but a whole 16 days worth of celebrating. Also referred to as the Spring Festival, this holiday is the most widely celebrated holiday in China, as well as one of the most important traditions in the Chinese culture. Preparing included activities such as cleaning, shopping, getting a haircut, and more- but all of those should be finished by now as the people get ready for the festival’s arrival.

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If anyone still has some sweeping left to do, they’d better get on it! An important Chinese New Year’s tradition is a type of cleaning Chinese people call “sweeping the dust”, which is a symbol of bidding the old year farewell and making room for the New Year to bring good luck into the home. However, sweeping or any sort of cleaning is strongly advised against during the first two days of the New Year because it is believed to sweep away the good luck that the New Year brings. 

Now that the house has been cleaned and all the necessary items have been bought, it is time to decorate the house. Putting up New Year decorations and preparing the house for the holiday is something most families typically do the night before the New Year. Houses are decorated with red lanterns, red couplets, New Year paintings, and images of goats or sheep since this 2015 is the Year of the Sheep. Another important custom typically done on New Year’s Eve is to paste a “door god” image on to the front door. Although the “door gods” were originally made of carved peach wood, nowadays most people just paste printed images. These images are a prayer for health, peace, and longevity. Two door gods are thought to ward off evil spirits and keep them from entering the home. The door gods are always scowling and holding weapons to intimidate evil spirits and display power. 

The New Year’s paintings serve a different purpose. The paintings are put up to create a joyful and prosperous environment in the home. The subjects of the paintings are typically positive, happy ones including birds, flowers, ripe fruit, legends, treasure and more. 

And now that the home has been decorated and all the necessary items to bring in good luck and fortune have been put up, it is time for the New Year’s Eve dinner. Having a big feast with the family is seen as a critical aspect of the New Year’s celebration and most people try their hardest to make sure they are present. The food served on this special night varies depending on which region of China you’re in. In northern China, the traditional food for New Years Eve is dumplings shaped like a half moon. In southern China, they consume niangao, a cake made of rice flour, as their traditional dish. 

Since the family is all together for this wonderful dinner, parents and grandparents use this time to give the red envelopes filled with lucky money to the children. The gift symbolizes the parents’ wish for their children to stay healthy and grow a lot during the upcoming year. 

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Much like New Year’s Eve in the United States, in China families stay up till at least midnight to witness the beginning of the New Year and hear the traditional midnight bells begin to ring. 

Getting Ready For the Chinese New Year

Although Chinese New Year is a few weeks away, Chinese families are already busy preparing for the big celebration. Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is the most widely celebrated holiday in China- and a holiday this big requires a lot of preparation. For many families, preparation can begin a month ahead of time. The preparation is equally as rooted in tradition as the celebration itself and considered very important- so much so that there are step-by-step guides on how exactly to welcome the New Year. So these are the steps many Chinese families follow in the weeks and days ahead of the holiday, which this year is February 19th, to assure that their celebration goes smoothly and sets the stage for a great new year. 

1. Visit a Fortune Teller

With the holiday comes a new year filled with either good luck or bad, so many people visit a fortune teller to see what the upcoming year has in store for them so they can properly prepare themselves.

2. Clean the house

This is a crucial component of preparing for the New Year. Many hours of cleaning are required to get the house ready for the holiday, believing that cleansing one's home sweeps away any bad fortune. Although cleaning is an important aspect of the New Year's traditions, it is only in the few weeks approaching the holiday where it is necessary- once New Years Eve has arrived it is critical that all cleaning comes to a halt, due to the belief that one the New Year has arrived any further cleaning will sweep away the incoming good fortune. Once the house is spotless, it is tradition to hang chunlian, or paper couplets, in the doorways to encourage good luck to enter the home. 

3. Get a haircut

Not only do you want to start the year off with the right hairstyle, but cutting anything during the New Year celebration (even your hair!) is considered bad luck, so better get out and get it cut now! 

4. Hit the shops

It’s important to go shopping to purchase all the necessary items to make New Year celebrations festive and special. The first items to check off on the list? The food of course! One of the biggest parts of the celebrations are the dishes families prepare for one another. One of the traditional foods you’ll see in many households on the night of New Years are dumplings. Other items to check off the list include new clothes and red envelops. The new clothes (preferably red) are to usher in the New Year and the red envelops are to hold the gift of money that it is custom to give loved ones on the day of the New Year. Once you have treated yourself, it is time to treat your friends and family! The red color of the envelops and clothes is important because red represents good luck, something everyone wants to attract during this time. 

Participation in these cultural rituals will assure any celebrators a happy and luck-filled New Year this February 19th! 

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Preparing For the Year of The Sheep

The Chinese New Year, one of the grandest and most important holidays of the year, is arriving February 19th, so before then there are some key things you can do to prepare! The Chinese New Year, sometimes referred to as the Chinese Spring Festival, has been celebrated for more than 4,000 years, originating during the Shang Dynasty in the 17th to 11th century BC. As you probably suspected, a holiday dating back that far in history comes with many traditions. A number of the traditions, of course, revolve around the time period when the holiday has officially begun, but some of them involve the days or even weeks beforehand. After all, a holiday this important requires some preparation! 

A huge part of the preparation and celebration of the New Year is to ensure that the upcoming year is a year filled with luck and happiness, so how exactly does one prepare to make their year the best one possible? Certain traditions repeat each New Year, but others depend on the Zodiac sign that will be represented during the upcoming year. 2015 welcomes the Year of the Sheep, more specifically the Year of the Wooden Sheep, so several of the preparations for this holiday will be unique from ones in the past. 

The key to winning the attention and empathy of the Wooden Sheep for a year of good luck and happiness is to understand what the Year of the Wooden Sheep means. As Eileen Wacker points out in her article, “Get Ready! The Sheep Are Coming”, the sheep are the artists of the Zodiac. They are kind, sweet, and generous. As a sensitive creature, the sheep is happy when surrounded by kindness and peace. If you know someone who is a sheep (anyone turning 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, or 72 this year), tell them you love them and you will be rewarded with loyalty and passion. 

In addition to the Five Elements, (Earth, wind, fire, water, and wood), colors are also often represented as part of the Zodiac signs. Since the sheep is a herbivore, green is the color that will be represented this year. This means that this year, all things green are good (yes, even vegetables for our picky eaters!). In the coming weeks of the New Year, drink green tea and embrace the peace and serenity that the sheep loves so much. 

The next way to prepare for the Year of the Sheep is a crucial one. Despite the association of sheep with farms, the sheep does not like anything to be dirty, but is rather quite a tidy animal. To please the sheep and welcome a year of good luck, be sure to de-clutter your home and office. Make room for the good luck to come by dusting and sweeping your entire home. In addition, clean out your closets and make sure the entrance way to your home is well lit. 

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The next way to prepare for the New Year is a tricky one if you live in a cold part of the world, but still just as important. For a period of time each day all the way till February 19th, open your windows. This allows the “stale air of the past” to exit your home and invites the fresh air of new opportunities to flow inside. 

Use the time before the holiday to do some soul searching. Set some goals and figure out what you would like to accomplish this year. Remembering that the sheep loves peace, serenity, and kindness, avoid being moody and pessimistic this year. Also knowing that the sheep also loves generosity, perhaps donate things you don’t use anymore or don’t need while you are decluttering your home. Being as kind and positive as possible in the weeks leading up to the holiday will increase your chances of good fortune during this upcoming year. 

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Understanding the Meaning and Purpose of the 12 Chinese Zodiac Animal Signs

Most people have heard about the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals and may even know which sign is theirs, but many do not fully understand the origin, meaning, or purpose of the signs. The Chinese Zodiac and Lunar cycle can be confusing due to their intricate nature but as the Chinese New Year is approaching, it is important to understand exactly what they mean. 

Rather than January 1st, the day of the 2015 Chinese New Year begins February 19th because it follows the Chinese Lunar Calendar system, based on the movements of the moon. The coming of February 19th will mean the beginning of the 4712th Chinese year- wow!

The Chinese Zodiac was created as a system for counting years. The ancient time division was most often based upon the number 12; one ji equals 12 years, one year equals 12 months, and so on. This was most likely due to the fact that ancient people observed that there were 12 full moons in each year. So it makes sense that there would be 12 animal signs given to this counting system.

Where it starts to get even more complicated is that in addition to the 12 signs, the calendar is also connected to the five elements, (Earth, Water, Wood, Fire, and Metal). So each year is not only given an animal sign but also paired with one of the five elements. So 2015 is not only the Year of the Sheep, but more specifically the Year of the Wooden Sheep, because this year falls on wood for the five elements. This gives way to even more meaning and predictions for the upcoming year. 

The 12 Zodiac signs are purposed to represent a systematic plan of future events and actions, in other words it helps people to predict what is to be expected for that upcoming year. Or, if one knows their “sign”, it helps them to determine their strengths, weaknesses, and perhaps even their fortune. 

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