Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the
Chinese calendar. The Chinese year 4705 ( it means 2007 ) begins on Feb. 18, 2007. Chinese months are reckoned by the lunar calendar (but no heliacal calendar) , with each month beginning on the darkest day (and when to the middle of the month, the moon become brightnest ) . New Year festivities traditionally start on the first day of the month and continue until the fifteenth (We call rice glue ball, it means the moon turn to circinal) , when the moon is brightest. In China, people may take weeks of holiday from work to prepare for and celebrate the New Year (like the Christmas in western).
In China, every year has a propitious animal, and now it comes the piggy year. Legend has it that in ancient times,
Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. He announced that the people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality. Those born in pig years tend to have excellent manners, make and keep friends, work very hard, and appreciate luxury. They are very loving and make loyal partners.
At Chinese New Year celebrations people wear red clothes, decorate with poems on red paper, and give children "lucky money"(now i need give the lucky money to my grandmother and grandfather) in red envelopes. Red symbolizes fire and lucky, which according to legend can drive away bad luck. The fireworks that shower the festivities are rooted in a similar ancient custom. Long ago, people in China lit bamboo stalks, believing that the crackling flames would frighten evil spirits (The last day of a year we called new year eve, if in Chinese it is call 'Chu xi', and means drive away of monster) .
In China, the New Year is a time of family reunion. Family members gather at each other's homes for visits and shared meals, most significantly a feast on New Year's Eve. In the United States, however, many early Chinese immigrants arrived without their families, and found a sense of community through neighborhood associations instead. Today, many Chinese-American neighborhood associations host banquets and other New Year events.
Chinese New Year ends with the lantern festival on the fifteenth day of the month. Some of the lanterns may be works of art, painted with birds, animals, flowers, zodiac signs, and scenes from legend and history. People hang glowing lanterns in temples, and carry lanterns to an evening parade under the light of the full moon.
In many areas the highlight of the lantern festival is the dragon dance. The dragon—which might stretch a hundred feet long—is typically made of silk, paper, and bamboo. Traditionally the dragon is held aloft by young men who dance as they guide the colorful beast through the streets. In the United States, where the New Year is celebrated with a shortened schedule, the dragon dance always takes place on a weekend. In addition, many Chinese-American communities have added American parade elements such as marching bands and floats.
More informaiton:
The Chinese New Year has a great history. In other traditions, by this time in the year, most resolutions - made on December 31 - have been subtly forgotten and placed in a cupboard marked "maybe next year." However, all hope is not lost, as there's a second chance to start afresh with the celebration of Chinese New Year on February 12th.The Chinese New Year is very similar to the Western one, swathed in traditions and rituals.The origin of the Chinese New Year is itself centuries old - in fact, too old to actually be traced. It is popularly recognised as the Spring Festival and celebrations last 15 days. Preparations tend to begin a month from the date of the Chinese New Year (similar to a Western Christmas), when people start buying presents, decoration materials, food and clothing. A huge clean-up gets underway days before the New Year, when Chinese houses are cleaned from top to bottom, to sweep away any traces of bad luck, and doors and windowpanes are given a new coat of paint, usually red. The doors and
windows are then decorated with paper cuts and couplets with themes such as happiness, wealth and longevity printed on them.The eve of the New Year is perhaps the most exciting part of the event, as anticipation creeps in. Here, traditions and rituals are very carefully observed in everything from food to clothing. Dinner is usually a feast of seafood and dumplings, signifying different good wishes. Delicacies include prawns, for liveliness and happiness, dried oysters (or ho xi), for all things good, raw fish salad or yu sheng to bring good luck and prosperity, Fai-hai (Angel Hair), an edible hair-like seaweed to bring prosperity, and dumplings boiled in water (Jiaozi) signifying a long-lost good wish for a family. It's usual to wear something red as this colour is meant to ward off evil spirits - but black and white are out, as these are associated with mourning. After dinner, the family sit up for the night playing cards, board games or watching TV programmes dedicated to the occasion. At midnight, the sky is lit up by fireworks.On the day itself, an ancient custom called Hong Bao, meaning Red Packet, takes place. This involves married couples giving children and unmarried adults money in red envelopes. Then the family begins to say greetings from door to door, first to their relatives and then their neighbours. Like the Western saying "let bygones be bygones," at Chinese New Year, grudges are very easily cast aside.The end of the New Year is marked by the Festival of Lanterns, which is a celebration with singing, dancing and lantern shows. Although celebrations of the Chinese New Year vary, the underlying message is one of peace and happiness for family members and friends.
See the Traditional Celebration in different place:
Liaoning Province, A girl and a lovely monkey king. This monkey king is been made by flour or mud (Such things like these two). In Tianjing, 'Ni Ren Zhang' is very famous for making the mud toy. For the monkey king, it is a famous character in a fiction. This fiction is base on a real story the '
Tang dynasty' monk go to India to get the sutra. One follower of the monk have bizarre long body hair. So the author write the fiction and suppose the follower was a deiform monkey.
Shanxi Province, In China there are no province call Shanxi, But this one is famous for the Emperor Qin's Mausoleum. In this picture i can see the person wear the archaic clothes and stilted on the street. It is also a traditional habitude in Shanxi Province to celebrate the new year.
Szechwan(Sichuan Province), Szechwan have a local drama. The actor always wear a mask spray fire. And the
actor's stunt is changing their mask very fast (they hidden some mask for alternation )
Hongkong, because Hongkong is very warm, so in the Chinese new year, the denizens have a traditional consuetude to ramble theLantern Festival see the light, flower and the Chinese totem Dragon
Beijing, A woman look through mini windmill, also we can see some blurry calabash.
