Spring Festival (Chinese New Year)
The largest traditional Chinese festival, celebrating the start of the lunar calendar and marking the arrival of Chinese New Year. Celebrated over a 15-day period culminating in the Lantern Festival, it is marked by family reunions, red envelopes (hongbao) containing money, fireworks, lion and dragon dances, and traditional feasts. The Spring Festival generates the largest annual human migration in the world (chunyun), with hundreds of millions of Chinese traveling home to reunite with family.
Spring Festival
The Spring Festival (Chunjie), commonly known as Chinese New Year, is the most important and widely celebrated festival in China and Chinese communities worldwide. It marks the beginning of a new year according to the lunar calendar and officially lasts 15 days.
Origins
The festival's origins date back over 3,000 years to the Shang and Zhou dynasties. According to legend, a monster called Nian terrorized villages at the start of each year. Villagers discovered that Nian feared noise, fire, and the color red, which explains the traditions of firecrackers, fireworks, and red decorations. The Chinese lunar calendar assigns each year one of twelve zodiac animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig).
Preparations
Preparations begin weeks before New Year's. Houses are thoroughly cleaned to sweep away bad luck (da sao chu). Spring couplets (chunlian) in red calligraphy are pasted on either side of doors. The character 'fu' (fortune) is displayed upside down to signify that fortune 'arrives' (the words for 'upside down' and 'arrive' sound similar in Chinese).
New Year's Eve (Chuxi)
On New Year's Eve, families gather for an elaborate feast. The menu varies by region but generally includes jiaozi (dumplings) in the north, nian gao (rice cake) for prosperity, fish (symbol of abundance), and tangyuan (glutinous rice balls). After dinner, families stay awake until midnight (shou sui) watching the New Year's Gala on television.
Hongbao and Traditions
Hongbao (red envelopes) containing money are given by elders and married couples to children and unmarried people. Amounts should be in even numbers (except multiples of four, considered unlucky). Lion dances and dragon dances are performed in the streets to bring luck and prosperity.
Chunyun
The travel period around New Year, called chunyun, is the largest annual human migration in the world. Approximately 3 billion trips are made over 40 days, as migrant workers return to their hometowns and villages to reunite with families.
Lantern Festival
Celebrations conclude on the 15th day with the Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao Jie), where lanterns of all shapes and colors illuminate the streets. Families eat tangyuan and solve riddles written on lanterns. This final day officially marks the end of New Year festivities.
Related
lieu
Beijing
Capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the oldest cities in the world, with over 3,000 years of history and more than 21 million inhabitants. The country's political and cultural center, Beijing houses the Forbidden City (world's largest imperial palace), the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, and the Great Wall nearby. The city is a crossroads between millennia-old imperial China and dazzling modernity, illustrated by the Chaoyang business district and the 2008 Olympic venues.
gastronomie
Dim Sum
Cantonese culinary tradition consisting of a variety of small dishes served in bamboo steamer baskets, traditionally enjoyed with tea during yum cha ('drinking tea'). Classics include ha gow (shrimp dumplings), siu mai, char siu bao (barbecue pork buns), and cheung fun (rice noodle rolls). Originating from Guangdong province and Hong Kong, dim sum has become a symbol of Cantonese conviviality and has spread worldwide.
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