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Spring Festival
1.
Tale of Nian
We call the Spring Festival Nian, but
did you know that Nian was once the name
of a terrible, scary monster? A long
time ago, the monster Nian lived in the mountains.
It looked like an ugly dragon, and got
angry easily.
Nian ate
animals. But in winter, it could not find food. So
it came to many villages
and
ate
people.
People
were
so
afraid
of
Nian
that
they
locked
their
doors
before
evening came during
the winter.
One day, an old
man came to a village. He told people there that
Nian was afraid
of three
things
—
red color, fire and
noise. He told people to play drums and gongs
(
铜
锣
), make big
fires and set off fireworks
(
放鞭炮
) to make Nian go away.
On a moonless, cold night, Nian went to
the village again. As soon as it opened its
big mouth, people made loud noises and
made fires. Nian was really afraid and ran
away. Wher-
ever it went,
there was noise and fire. When Nian was tired and
could not
run anymore, people killed
the monster.
After that, on the coldest
day of winter, people beat drums and gongs, and
set off
fire
?
works to
celebrate the death of the monster of Nian. They
put up red lanterns
(
灯
笼
)
and
have
a
big
dinner
without
sleeping
during
the
night,
and
greet
each
other
happily in the next
morning.
2.
Brief
Introduction of Spring Festival
The
Spring Festival is the most important festival for
the Chinese people and is
when
all
family
members
get
together,
just
like
Christmas
in
the
West.
All
people
living away from home
go back, becoming the busiest time for
transportation systems
of
about
half
a
month
from
the
Spring
Festival.
Airports,
railway
stations
and
long-distance bus stations are crowded
with home returnees.
The
Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st
lunar month. Strictly speaking,
the
Spring Festival starts every year in the early
days of the 12th lunar month and will
last till the mid 1st lunar month of
the next year. Of them, the most important days
are
Spring Festival Eve and the first
three days. The Chinese government now stipulates
people have seven days off for the
Chinese Lunar New Year.
3.
Preliminary Customs
Many
customs accompany the Spring Festival. Some are
still followed today, but
others have
weakened.
On
the
8th
day
of
the
12th
lunar
month,
many
families
make
laba
porridge,
a
delicious kind of porridge made with
rice
，
glutinous
rice
（糯米）
,
millet
（
小米）
, coix
seed
（薏仁）
, jujube
berries
（枣泥）
, lotus
seeds(
莲子
), beans,
longan
（桂圆）
and
gingko
（白果）
.
The
23rd
day
of
the
12th
lunar
month
is
called
Preliminary
Eve.
At
this
time,
people offer sacrifice
to the kitchen god. Now however, most families
make delicious
food to enjoy
themselves.
After the Preliminary Eve,
people begin preparing for the coming New Year.
This
is called
Store owners
are busy then as everybody goes out to purchase
necessities for the
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New Year.
Materials
not
only include
edible oil, rice, flour, chicken, duck, fish and
meat, but also fruit, candies and kinds
of nuts. What's more, various decorations, new
clothes and shoes for the children as
well as gifts for the elderly, friends and
relatives,
are all on the list of
purchasing.
Before the New Year comes,
the people completely clean the indoors and
outdoors
of their homes as well as
their clothes, bedclothes and all their
utensils
（器具）
.
Then
people
begin
decorating
their
clean
rooms
featuring
an
atmosphere
of
rejoicing
（喜悦）
and
festivity
（欢庆）
. All the door
panels will be pasted with Spring
Festival
couplets
（春联）
, highlighting
Chinese calligraphy with black characters on
red paper. The content varies from
house owners' wishes for a bright future to good
luck for the New Year. Also, pictures
of the god of doors and wealth will be posted on
front doors to ward off evil spirits
and welcome peace and
abundance
（富足）
.
The
Chinese
character
(meaning
blessing
or
happiness)
is
a
must.
The
character
put
on
paper
can
be
pasted
normally
or
upside
down,
for
in
Chinese
the
fu
is
homophonic
（谐音）
with
comes
What's
more,
two
big
red
lanterns can be raised
on both sides of the front door. Red paper-
cuttings can be seen
on window glass
and brightly colored New Year paintings with
auspicious
（吉利的）
meanings may be put on the wall.
People attach
great
importance to
Spring
Festival
Eve. At that time,
all family
members eat dinner together.
The meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such
as
chicken, fish and bean curd cannot
be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations,
respectively
and
mean
auspiciousne
ss
（吉利）
,
abundance
and
richness. After the
dinner, the whole family will sit together,
chatting and watching TV
.
In
recent
years,
the
Spring
Festival
party
broadcast
on
China
Central
Television
Station (CCTV) is
essential entertainment for the Chinese both at
home and abroad.
According to custom,
each family will stay up to see the New Year in.
4.
New
Year
’
Customs
Waking
up
on
New
Year,
everybody
dresses
up.
First
they
extend
greetings
to
their parents. Then each
child will get money as a New Year gift, wrapped
up in red
paper. People in
northern China will eat
jiaozi, or dumplings, for breakfast,
as
they
think
（迎接）
in the
new
Also,
the
shape
of
the
dumpling
is
like
gold
ingot
from
ancient
China.
So
people eat them and wish for money and
treasure.
Southern Chinese
eat niangao (New Year cake made of glutinous rice
flour) on
this occasion, because as a
homophone, niangao means
after
another.
friends,
and
classmates
as
well
as
colleagues
to
exchange
greetings,
gifts
and
chat
leisurely.
Burning
fireworks
was
once
the
most
typical
custom
on
the
Spring
Festival.
People
thought
the
spluttering
sound
could
help
drive
away
evil
spirits.
However,
such
an
activity
was
completely
or
partially
forbidden
in
big
cities
once
the
government
took
security,
noise
and
pollution
factors
into
consideration.
As
a
replacement,
some
buy
tapes
with
firecracker
sounds
to
listen
to,
some
break
little
balloons to get the
sound too, while others buy firecracker
handicrafts to hang in the
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