How it is celebrated
Chinese New Year is an important Chinese festival celebrated at the turn of the Chinese calendar. In China, celebrations traditionally run from Chinese New Year’s eve, the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar, also known as Spring Festival. The first Chinese New Year was celebrated centuries ago and has gained significance because of several myths and traditions. Traditionally, the festival was a time to honour deities as well as ancestors. Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese population, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, and the Philippines.
Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the lunar New Year celebrations of its geographic neighbour. It falls between January 21 and February 20. Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese New Year vary widely. Often, the evening preceding Chinese New Year’s Day is an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of “good fortune” or “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity”. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes.
In 1928, the ruling Kuomintang party in China decreed that Chinese New Year will fall on 1 Jan of the Gregorian calendar, but this was abandoned due to overwhelming opposition from the populace. In 1967 during the Cultural Revolution, Chinese New Year celebrations were banned in China. The State Council of the People’s Republic of China announced that the public should “change customs”, have a “revolutionised and fighting Spring Festival”, and since people needed to work on Chinese New Year eve, they didn’t have holidays during Spring Festival day. The celebrations were reinstated 13 years later after the Chinese economic reforms.
The first day is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens and earth, officially beginning at midnight. It is a traditional practice to light fireworks, burn bamboo sticks and firecrackers and to make as much of a din as possible to chase off the evil spirits. Many people, especially Buddhists, abstain from meat consumption on the first day because it is believed that this will ensure longevity for them. Some consider lighting fires and using knives to be bad luck on New Year’s Day, so all food to be consumed is cooked the days before. On this day, it is considered bad luck to use the broom.
The second day of the Chinese New Year is known as “beginning of the year” when married daughters visit their birth parents, relatives and close friends. Traditionally, married daughters didn’t have the opportunity to visit their birth families frequently.
The third day is known as “red mouth” (Chìkǒu). Chikou is also called “Chigou’s Day”. Chigou, literally “red dog”, is an epithet of “the God of Blazing Wrath”. Rural villagers continue the tradition of burning paper offerings over trash fires. It is considered an unlucky day to have guests or go visiting. Hakka villagers in rural Hong Kong in the 1960s called it the Day of the Poor Devil and believed everyone should stay at home. This is also considered a propitious day to visit the temple of the God of Wealth and have one’s future told.
In those communities that celebrate Chinese New Year for 15 days, the fourth day is when corporate “spring dinners” kick off and business returns to normal. Other areas that have a longer Chinese New Year holidays they will celebrate and welcome the gods on this day.
This day is the God of Wealth’s birthday. In northern China, people eat jiaozi, or dumplings, on the morning of powu. In Taiwan, businesses traditionally reopen on the next day (the sixth day), accompanied by firecrackers.
It is also common in China that on the fifth day people will shoot off firecrackers to get Guan Yu’s. The seventh day, traditionally known as Renri (the common person’s birthday), is the day when everyone grows one year older. In some overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Singapore, it is also the day when tossed raw fish salad, yusheng, is eaten for continued wealth and prosperity.
For many Chinese Buddhists this is another day to avoid meat. The seventh day commemorates the birth of Sakra, Lord of the Devas in Buddhist cosmology who is analogous to the Jade Emperor. People ask for his attention, thus ensuring his favour and good fortune for the New Year.
Another family dinner is held to celebrate the eve of the birth of the Jade Emperor, the ruler of heaven. People normally return to work by the eighth day, therefore the store owners will host a lunch/dinner with their employees, thanking their employees for the work they have done for the whole year.
The ninth day of the New Year is a day for the Chinese to offer prayers to the Jade Emperor in the Daoist Pantheon. This day is traditionally the birthday of the Jade Emperor. This day, called Ti Kong Dan, Ti Kong Si or Pai Ti Kong, is especially important to Hokkiens, even more important than the first day of the Chinese New Year.
The Jade Emperor’s party is celebrated on 10th day.
On the 13th day people will eat pure vegetarian food – in the belief that it will clean out their stomachs – due to consuming too much food over the preceding two weeks.
This day is dedicated to the General Guan Yu, also known as the Chinese God of War. Guan Yu was born in the Han dynasty and is considered to be the greatest general in Chinese history. He represents loyalty, strength, truth, and justice. According to history, he was tricked by the enemy and was beheaded.
The fifteenth day of the New Year is celebrated as “Yuanxiao Festival”, also known as “Shangyuan Festival” or the Lantern Festival. Rice dumplings tangyuan, a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup, are eaten on this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. This day is celebrated as the Lantern Festival, and families walk the streets carrying lighted lanterns.
In China, Malaysia and Singapore, this day is celebrated by individuals seeking for a romantic partner, akin to Valentine’s Day. Normally, single women would write their contact number on mandarin oranges and throw it in a river or a lake while single men would collect them and eat the oranges. The taste is an indication of their possible love: sweet represents a good fate while sour represents a bad fate.
This day often marks the end of the Chinese New Year’s festivities.
