Chinese New Year: the Spring Festival, the world's largest celebration

At midnight, the sky over Chinese cities tears open with firecrackers and fireworks. On the doors, strips of red paper calligraphed with wishes. On the table, a whole fish that no one will quite finish. In the children's pockets, small scarlet envelopes swollen with crisp banknotes. The family has gathered, sometimes after two thousand kilometres of travel. This is Chinese New Year, the greatest festival of the world's largest population.

Chinese New Year, officially the Spring Festival, marks the first day of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, between late January and mid-February. More than a change of date, it is a great ritual of renewal: the past year is settled, ill luck is driven out, prosperity is called in. To understand this festival is to grasp the beating heart of Chinese family and cultural life.

At the roots: the Nian monster#

The most famous legend attributes the festival to the struggle against a monster called Nian. According to popular tradition, this creature emerged at each year's end to devour livestock, crops and villagers. The inhabitants discovered that the beast feared three things: noise, fire and the colour red.

From this come the festival's emblematic rituals: the deafening firecrackers, the scarlet lanterns and decorations, the joyous din that drives off evil spirits. The word nián also means "year" in Chinese, and the expression guònián (过年), "to pass the Nian," still means to celebrate the New Year today. Each New Year's Eve thus symbolically re-enacts the victory over the creature.

Everything in the Spring Festival speaks the same language: red, fire and clamour. Three weapons against fear, become three emblems of joy.

The lunar calendar and the zodiac#

The festival's moving date is explained by the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which follows the cycles of the moon while keeping in step with the seasons. The first day of the year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice, between 21 January and 20 February.

Each year is moreover placed under the sign of one of the twelve zodiac animals, which follow one another in a regular cycle. The year's animal colours the wishes, the decorations and the superstitions of the moment.

New Year's Eve: the reunion meal#

The heart of the festival is the New Year's Eve meal, the niányèfàn (年夜饭), "dinner of the year's evening," shared as a family on the eve of the New Year. It is the most sacred moment: all are reunited there, the living and, symbolically, the ancestors.

Each dish carries a meaning, often based on a pun. Fish is pronounced like yú (余), "abundance, surplus": a whole one is served, and part is left, so that abundance will "remain" next year. The dumplings jiǎozi (饺子), folded into the shape of ingots, promise wealth; the niángāo (年糕), glutinous rice cakes whose name evokes "rising higher each year" (年高), herald progress and success.

Red envelopes and wishes#

The ritual children most look forward to is the giving of red envelopes, the hóngbāo (红包). Elders slip crisp money into them for the youngest and the unmarried, as a token of luck and protection for the year. The sum traditionally avoids the number 4, whose pronunciation recalls death, and favours 8, synonymous with prosperity.

Ritual wishes are also exchanged. Gōngxǐ fācái (恭喜发财), "congratulations and prosperity," is the foremost formula. Doors are adorned with chūnlián, couplets of calligraphed red paper, and with the character 福 (fú, "happiness") often pasted upside down: for "happiness upturned" (福倒) is pronounced like "happiness arrives" (福到).

Fifteen days of celebration#

The Spring Festival lasts not one evening but fifteen days, punctuated by customs proper to each day. One visits relatives and friends, one avoids sweeping in the first days — for fear of chasing away luck freshly arrived — one honours the household deities.

In the streets erupt the lion and dragon dances, long fabric creatures carried by troupes of dancers to the sound of drums and cymbals, meant to ward off evil spirits and bless shops and homes. On the fifteenth day, the full moon, the festivities close with the Lantern Festival: thousands of lanterns are released or hung, and people savour tāngyuán (汤圆), glutinous rice balls round as the moon and symbols of family reunion.

A festival that overflows China#

Chinese New Year is no longer only Chinese. Celebrated throughout East and Southeast Asia — under other names and with local variants — it also paces the life of diasporas the world over. The Chinatowns of San Francisco, London, Paris or Sydney deploy parades, firecrackers and lion dances that draw crowds far beyond the Chinese community.

A festival of family, renewal and memory, the Spring Festival condenses in a few days a whole system of values: piety toward elders, care for the collective, trust in the cycle that begins anew.

To discover Chinese New Year is to understand how a civilisation turns the passage of time into a great act of cohesion. To learn Chinese is also to decipher these wishes — gōngxǐ fācái, fú, nián — that hold, in a few characters, millennia of shared hope.

FAQ#

When is Chinese New Year? On the second new moon after the winter solstice, between 21 January and 20 February depending on the year. The date moves because it follows the Chinese lunisolar calendar.

What are red envelopes (hongbao)? Scarlet envelopes containing money, given by elders to children and the unmarried to wish them luck and prosperity. The red colour symbolises happiness and protection.

Why is fish eaten at Chinese New Year? Because the word "fish" (鱼, yú) is pronounced like "abundance" (余). A whole one is served and part is left, so that prosperity will "remain" the following year.

How long does the Spring Festival last? Fifteen days, from New Year's Eve to the Lantern Festival, which closes the celebrations on the evening of the year's first full moon.

Photo credits: the images used in this article come from Pexels and Unsplash and are royalty-free.