By Graham Thompson, Website Editor, 30 December 2011
The Year of the Dragon began on 23 January 2012, and has been marked in Scotland as well as in Chinese communities worldwide. This page provides some background to this Chinese festival. We also have a separate article on our website here about Chinese dragons, and see our Home page for our special dragon greetings cards.
What is Chinese New Year ?
Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China it is also known as "Spring Festival". The festival begins on the first day of the first month in the traditional Chinese calendar, and ends with Lantern Festival on the 15th day. The date varies from year to year with the lunar calendar, but is generally between mid January and mid February. In agricultural life, it represents the start of new life and the season of ploughing and sowing.
This year, Chinese New Year falls on 23 January 2012, and the period 22-28 January is a public holiday. As a visitor to China, it is wise to avoid travelling around Chinese New Year if you can. In addition, it will not generally be possible to arrange business meetings on these days and shortly before the holidays.
Chinese New Year is celebrated right across the People's Republic of China, and in other countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, such Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and in Chinatowns worldwide.
According to folk legend, the Chinese New Year traditions started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food, it wouldn’t attack any more people.
On one occasion, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. So, every year, the villagers hung red lanterns and red scrolls on windows and doors, and used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. Many of the modern traditions are based on this story.
Our photos show New Year messages on house doors in Yunnan province ; fireworks being set off in a Shanghai street on New Year's Night ; and "hong baos", the red envelopes used to contain gifts of money.
How is Chinese New Year celebrated ?
Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration vary widely. People spend a lot of money buying presents, decorations, food, and new clothes. It is also traditional for every family to clean their house thoroughly, to sweep away ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune", "happiness", "wealth" and "longevity". The underlying philosophical tradition is to reconcile, forget all grudges and debts, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.
On Chinese New Year's Eve, families will gather for their annual reunion dinner, perhaps a great feast including pork, duck, chicken and sweet delicacies. Nowadays, many Chinese families go out to take advantage of the many special restaurant deals available at this time of year.
The family will mark the coming of the New Year with fireworks to frighten away "evil spirits" - Chinese cities are very noisy places around midnight, and for hours afterwards ! Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. Over the next few days, everyone calls on relatives and friends to exchange gifts and good wishes.
Chinese New Year greetings
You may hear several different special greetings at this time of year :
新年快乐 = Xin Nian Kuai Le = Happy New Year (Mandarin, simplified characters)
恭禧发财 = Gong Xi Fa Cai = Wishing you prosperity in the coming year (Mandarin, simplified characters)
恭禧发财 = Gong Hey Fat Choy = Wishing you prosperity in the coming year (Cantonese, simplified characters)
What is the significance of the animals ?
The Chinese Lunar Calendar names each of its twelve years after an animal. One legend says Lord Buddha summoned all the animals to come to him before he departed from earth. Only twelve came to bid him farewell, and as a reward he named a year after each one in the order they arrived.
The animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig, which rotate in a 12 year cycle in that order. The current year, ending on 22 January 2012, is the Year of the Rabbit. The Year of the Dragon runs from 23 January 2012 to 9 February 2013.
The Chinese believe the animal ruling the year in which a person is born has a profound influence on personality, saying, "this is the animal that hides in your heart".
Chinese New Year travel
"Chunyun" (literally, Spring Festival rush) begins 15 days before New Year's Day and lasts for around 40 days. It has been called the largest annual human migration in the world. Around 2 billion individual passenger trips are made, as China's 253m migrant workers, as well as students and other travellers, flood onto trains, buses, and planes in a rush to get home for the traditional festivities.
How to find out more
There are many websites with more information about Chinese New Year. Here are a few ideas :
1. The Wikipedia article on Chinese New Year has a lot of detail about old and new traditions
2. This special CCTV page has footage from the big national TV gala and lots of other New Year stories and background
3. This BBC schools page has lots of useful background and some worksheets
4. WIkipedia also has an article on the Chunyun migration, and there are some dramatic photos from the period in recent years on this blog
Share this post
