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 Although the “door gods” were originally made of carved peach wood, nowadays most people just paste printed images.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. 

How Asian Countries celebrate Halloween

Halloween is the most popular holiday in the United States, but did you know that other countries celebrate it too? Countries around the world have ways of honoring and remembering the dead during this time of year. Even different countries in Asia like to celebrate Halloween, but not in the traditional costumes-and-pumpkins way we might think. 

Each October 31st, people across China celebrate Halloween, or Teng Chieh, by offering food and water to the dead. They also light lanterns with the belief that they will help to guide deceased loved ones as they make their visit to the "land of the living" in Halloween night. 

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The Japanese also utilize lanterns for their Halloween customs. The lanterns are traditionally colored red and are hung in every house. These red lanterns are also placed on boats and float through rivers to guide the spirits of the dead back to the homes of their families for the night. It is also traditional for Japanese families to clean the gravestones of their ancestors and prepare special dishes to honor and remember them. These customs and traditions are all referred to in Japan as the Obon Festival. 

Halloween is not big in Korea, but offerings of food and flowers are still made to their ancestors to show respect. 

Hong Kong remembers their lost loved ones through a traditional festival known as the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts. During this time, pictures of fruits or money are burned with the belief that these images will reach the spirits of the dead and provide comfort. 

Although many of the Halloween traditions in Asia are different from those in the United States, certain countries are beginning to pick up many Western Halloween traditions. For example, Halloween recently arrived in Japan. Now around this time of year, decorations such as jack-o'-lanterns can be seen around town of in shop windows and every year Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan puts on extravagant Halloween shows and events. Trick-or-Treating is still not a common practice in Japan, but costume house parties aren't that uncommon. 

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Besides the traditional and culture-rich Festival of the Hungry Ghosts, Hong Kong also likes to celebrate the more commercialized side of Halloween. Each year bars all across Hong Kong are decked out in Halloween decorations in an attempt to increase local interest in the holiday. Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park also host a Halloween Bash each year to promote and celebrate the holiday.