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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
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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 ric
e
（
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
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Year. This is
called
Store owners are busy then as
everybody goes out to purchase necessities
for the 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<
/p>
）
. 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
character
put
on
paper
can
be
pasted
normally
or
upside
down,
for
in
Chinese the
（
谐音
）
with
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.
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