Chinese New Year

     Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is one of the most important holidays in China. It starts from the New Year's Eve according to the traditional Chinese Lunisolar Calendar. This festival is the longest public holiday in China that lasts about fifteen days. Literally, Spring Festival celebrate "new year's coming". During Chinese New Year, it’s a significant period for Chinese to follow the customs in order to have good fortunes in a new year. This holiday has a long-standing history more than 4,000 years. 

    “Nian,” which means “year” in Chinese, is a legend monster and also as the origin of Chinese New Year. According to the mythology, Nian is a mighty beast living on eating the human, especially children. At every end of a year, it will come out and seek people as food. The Chinese Lion dance was inspired by the figure of  “Nian”. But people are no longer afraid of  “Nian” as soon as they find its weaknesses: loud noises and the color red. As a result, Chinese have conventions to set off firecrackers during the New Year and regard “red” as an auspicious number.

      In the evening on the last day of a year, families will get together no matter how busy they are. Also, the dinner we eat on that day called "Reunion Dinner." This meal takes a significant role in Chinese beliefs that is the most important meal of a year. We always eat dumplings because of the shape of it is similar to an ancient Chinese money, which it's believed to bring us wealth for the next year. "Eight-Treasures" Rice is also a must-have in the Reunion Dinner. It made of glutinous rice with eight different kinds of "meaningful" food that are sweet and palatable, such as red dates represent "having an intelligent child", tiger lilies represent "forever", and so on. Another fun part of the day is watching  CCTV(a Chinese TV-channel)'s New Year Gala starts at 8 pm and ends at 12:00. It's a magnificent and prevalent performance that almost every Chinese will watch it on the day. It's also a dreamful stage for all Chinese stars. After watching, people will stay up late on new year's eve. There are two meanings behind the behavior: for elders, they stay up as saying good-bye to old time; for youngers, they stay up to prolong the lives of their parents, which is a superstition. There will have a bunch of fireworks in the nights during the Spring Festival. My family always watch them together. Usually in the morning on the first day of a year, I will be awakened by the loud sound of firecrackers. 

     People will hold plenty of family feasts. It's crazy that you have to reserve almost a month ahead if you want to have meals in restaurants during Chinese New Year. And the amazing thing is you can see nearly everyone is in red clothes spontaneously. Teenagers and children will get "lucky money" that is in red envelopes and hear benedictions from relatives. People are especially friendly, and we greet each other with sincere wishes, for example, I will say "wishing you prosperity." when I receive the lucky money from adults. 

     Just like Christmas, Chinese will also decorate all over the place. As for my family, my father and I will usually substitute the old spring couplets into a new one. Couplets are two pairs of phrases written on the red paper. Those two phrases are either the warm blessings or the philosophical sentences that prevent us from conceit. Some houses will also put up red lanterns upon their doors, which is thought to keep evil away. 

     Without a doubt, Chinese New Year plays a significant role in Chinese' hearts. We regard this celebration as the most important part of a year. It gives people chances for families reunion, for industrious workers to relax, and for persons find frustration to gain confidence again. We make wishes in Chinese New Year and work on it for the rest of a year, year and year repeat, and that's the cycle of lives.