The+Sping+Festival



Spring Festival is a time for family reunion. Every year around this time the population moves e masse to get to their home town by any means possible, be it by train, plane, bus or any manner of vehicle.

As our custom, the first day is for feasting at home with family and very close friends, the second and third days are for paying and receiving visits, so we should stayed at home or called on friends those days. To have an authentic Chinese experience, there are some essential things to do during the festiva season. The first thing is to have a big family dinner, and also it called “tuan yuan fan “or “family reunion dinner”.

Northern Chinese people traditionally eat "Jiaozi" or dumplings, while Southern Chinese usually eat rice. And each national minority has their own ancient culture. For example some national minority in the South usually wined and dined each other with their fiery hot food.

The second one is setting off firecrackers. The tradition of setting off firecrackers on the first day of New Year has a history of more than 2000 years. In Chinese, the Spring Festival is also called "Nian",after the name of a terrible beast in Chinese folklore. Every year at this time, it came down from the mountain to the villages to eat people and animals. In the past, people burnt bamboo to generate huge noises to drive "Nian" away, and this tradition has evolved to the use of firecrackers. In recent years, many Chinese cities banned firecrackers as a public safety measure. But most Chinese people are utterly obsessed with the tradition, and so the bans have been gradually lifted.

The third one is “chun lian”. During the Ten Kingdoms period, Emperor Mengchang of the state of Later Shun decided that a particularly beautiful spring merited some special recognition, so he ordered a couplet to be written and inscribed at either side of the palace door. But none of the courtiers could produce a text worthy of such a beautiful spring, so Emperor Mengchang penned one himself. And thus began the custom of writing door couplets for the New Year. It is said that early couplets were written on peach-wood planks, as these were thought to ward off menacing spirits. The planks were dubbed "peach charms" or "Taofu", a name that is still sometimes used even for the paper couplets.

Since television entered the homes of the nation in 1983, and each year CCTV (China Central Television) produced its first evening party for broadcast on the eve of Spring Festival. So watching the Spring Festival gala during New Year's Eve dinner has become common place for most Chinese people. It is the fourth thing we should do.

Perhaps the most important thing is blessing. New Year's Day is marked by people leaving their homes to send greetings to their relatives or friends. The common greetings include "Treasures fill the home!" "Business flourishes!" "Peace all year round!" and "Wishing you prosperity!” Nowadays, many young people have turned to modern gadgets such as telephones, mobile phone text messages and the Internet to express their season's greetings.

During these days, some places of china hold “temple fairs” especially in rural area. Which feature all kinds of Chinese folk art, performances and booths demonstrating and selling traditional arts and crafts. The fairs have lots of games to play, food to eat, and above all, lots of people. You can taste numerous kinds of local snacks, court food and other dishes.

And usually on the first day of lunar New Year, some people will visit temple. The street outside the main gate was lined with sellers of incense. People were queuing up by the hundred to buy it and burn the incense and chant and bow, even to kowtow, as they made the rounds of the temple statues.

According to Chinese folklore, the kitchen god travels to heaven at the end of every year to report the earthly goings-on to the god of heaven. In the past, around December 23 or 24 on the lunar calendar people would prepare candy for the kitchen god to make sure he says nice things about them.

As one of the most important traditional festival in China, the Spring Festival is regarded as the most important thing by most of Chinese. Everyone believes this custom will never disappear. It’s our national wealth!


 * Here are the assignments and resourses (1) about the Spring Festival and an English Speech competition. **