Lunar New Year Traditional Chinese Celebration

Lunar New Year is also called Chinese New Year, New Spring, Spring Festival, or Spring Celebration. For any Chinese, Lunar New Year is the most important festival in the entire year. This is the season filled with joy, and the time to reunite with family and friends.

The Nian Beast

Lunar New Year originated from the interesting legend of the Nian Sou - the beast called "Nian" ("year" in Chinese). It was believed that this Nian Beast would appear on every New Year's Eve to feast on the mortals. So every year on this day, everyone from the family and the village will come back to gather round to discuss and plan on fighting the Beast, hence the reunion on the eve of Lunar New Year.

These people believed that the Beast was afraid of the colour red, fire and bright light, loud noise and explosion. Therefore torches were lit, doors were pasted with red strips of paper, firecracker was released - all these, to drive the Beast away - till the next morning, when everyone came out to congratulate (Gong Xi) each other on the victory over the Beast.

Whether the legend was true, the tradition lived on. We now still practise the reunion, the red paper strips written with words depicting good fortune, and the firecracker (although many countries have banned this activity due to the explosive used in the firecracker).

The Eve - "30th Night"

The Reunion Dinner on the New Year's Eve is the most important event where everyone in the family will be expected to be present. Most families would prepare a feast for the night. The food dishes will also have names that signify good fortune or good life. For example, fish in Chinese (Yu) shares the same sound with the word 'extra' or 'leftover'. There is a New Year phrase that says "Nian Nian You Yu" which means, "there is some (fish) leftover from the previous year, every year". Therefore the lucky fish is a lucky dish, and paintings of fish are also loved by many. We will usually keep a little leftover from the reunion dinner, just as a symbolic gesture. Another common lucky dish is Fa Cai Hao Shi which means "prosperity and good fortune". Fa Cai is a type of seaweed that looks a lot like shiny black hair, and its Chinese name sounds just like "prosperity" in Chinese; whilst Hao Shi is preserved oyster, which sounds like "good things".

An age-old practice passed down from the Nian Beast legend is Shou Sui (literally means guarding/keeping age). Traditionally, the Chinese will stay up all night from the eve till the morning of Lunar New Year. It is believed that by doing so, they could extend their parents' living years. Therefore it is quite common to see the Chinese staying up talking, drinking tea, or even playing Mahjong all night long, on the New Year's Eve.

The Little Red Envelopes - "Ya Sui Qian"

You may have seen the little red envelopes containing money, given out during Lunar New Year. Some call it Hung Bao (means red packet), some call it Ang Pao (depending on the dialect), but the original name of the money wrapped in little red envelope is Ya Sui Qian. It is given to children by their parents for good luck, and it is only given by those who are married, to those who are younger. It will usually be given to children who come to visit the family, or to the younegr frined and relatives whom we visit. Chinese are very particular about longevity of life, and they - well, we - believe that by doing so, our ageing process can be decelerated. (Ya Sui means compressing age, Qian means money) Honestly, a lot of younger Chinese nowadays, are not aware of this. The money contained in the packet has over-shone the real meaning of the gesture.

Other Activities, Practices and Taboos

Other common practices are new clothes, new hair-cut (traditionally, those who are in mourning stage are not allowed to have their hair cut), paying visits to friends and relatives to give good greetings to each other, reconciliations, etc. popular festive activities such as Lion Dance and Dragon dance are believed to have the effect of ridding evils and bad luck, and to bring harvesting rain in the coming year.

Naturally, there are taboos that we have to abide during the festive season. Any sharp, pointy objects are not to be visible, no sweeping is allowed during the first few days of the New Year - even brooms have to be hidden away - to prevent any good luck or fortune that may be swept away. Breaking anything is also a taboo. Should it unfortunately happen, we will have to quickly say something nice to accompany it, such as Sui Sui Ping An - which means "out of harm's way, all year round". "Sui" means age or year, which sounds the same as "shattered". Apart from that, any vocabulary related to unfortunate event is a big No-No. In our family, we have to even hide the eggs away.

The Food and Good Fortune

The Lunar New Year preparation actually starts from Dong Zhi (Winter Festival), the 24th day of the 12th month on Lunar Calendar (normally falls on 21st or 22nd of December, the shortest day in a year). This day denotes the end of the cold winter, and the beginning of a new spring. In the Chinese legend, the Kitchen God (Zao Jun) will have to leave the family he was guarding, and return to report to the Lord of all Gods. To prevent the Kitchen God from bad-mouthing the family, they will make a sweet and sticky cake called Nian Gao, to offer to the Kitchen God. Nian Gao also signifies a higher achievement each year (Gao has the same sound as "high", and Nian means "year"). On this day, some Chinese will also make Tang Yuan (some have it on the 15th day of Lunar New Year) as part of the offerings. The sound of Tang Yuan is close to Tuan Yuan, which means "reuniting".

Other new year must-haves are Mandarin oranges, dried oyster, various types of melon seeds and sweets, steam cake (Fa Gao - symbolises proprerity), oil-preserved smoked duck and smoked sausages, etc. Prior to all these, some will also have La Ba Porridge on the 8th day of the month. Do check out more of our Festive Food selection.

Then it will be the spring-cleaning, that indicates sending the old and bad away, and prepare to welcome a better new year. Next will be the preparation of New Year offering and food to be served during the festive season. Some of the regular snacks and cookies in South East Asia are: Tapioca Cookies, Tofu Cookies, and Adzuki Bean Cake.

As the New Year is approaching, most Chinese will shop at the Flower Market (Hua Shi), for some good luck plants. More popular ones are Narcissus flowers, chrysanthemum, plum blossom and peach blossom. It is believed that, if the peach blossom blooms on the 1st day of New Year, the person or the family will have good luck for the year or find love. But these plants are only found in 4-season countries so Chinese who are in warmer countries will have to settle for other alternatives.

The red strips of paper with writing on are called Dui Lian (paired sentences), which come in pairs. These sentences should be written in complimenting manner, for instance, the first sentence (Shang Lian - "upper sentence") should have the noun, verb, etc complimenting the noun, verb, etc in second sentence (Xia Lian - "lower sentence"), in the same order. These phrases often describe the mood in spring and receiving fortune and luck. People will also put up other red decorations such as the word "Fu" (luck) on the wall or the main door. Some may like to place it upside down, reason being, "upside down" in Chinese shares the same sound with "arriving". So it in a way signifies the arriving of a lucky year.

A Long and Colourful Celebration

The Lunar New Year celebration officially lasts for 15 days. The second day of the New Year is the day when all married daughters have to go back to their parents' home for a visit. They is usually accompanied by their husbands, especialy the newly weds. The 7th day is a big day called The People's Day or man's birthday (Ren Ri), which symbolises the birth of new life and new hope after the fight against the Nian Beast (disaster and bad luck). The Hokkiens also celebrate the 9th day of the New Year extensively, treating it as important as the 1st day. On the 15th day, Yuan Xiao (also widely known as Chap Goh Meh in Hokkien, which means 15th night), people will visit the lantern show. Some lanterns will also carry riddles for the viewers to guess the answers, as an entertainment.

Yuan Xiao - The Chinese Valentine's Day

The 15th day is also being referred to as the Chinese Valentine's day. On this day, many single girls will gather at the riverside upstream to toss mandarin oranges into the river, with the hope that the right single men who await downstream, will pick up the oranges. It is believed that this act will bring the person to his/her right match. So it's no surprise the mandarin oranges will sell really well on that day.

Of course, Chinese who originated from different area of China might have different New Year tradition and practices. For instance, in Hong Kong, people believe that the first person who puts a joss stick into the temple's offering altar, will be having good luck for the rest of the year. You can imagine the crowd outside the temple at the dawn of the Lunar New Year.

We can go on forever, really. But if you have any different practices or New Year beliefs that we do not know of, please do share it with us. Anyone from any culture who would like to tell us about your celebration, we would also love to hear from you.

Lunar New Year in this 12-Year Cycle

Zodiac Animal			Lunar Year	First Day of New Year
	Rat		Wu Zi	February 7, 2008
	Ox		Ji Chou	January 26, 2009
	Tiger		Gen Yin	February 14, 2010
	Rabbit		Xin Mou	February 3, 2011
	Dragon		Ren Chen	January 23, 2012
	Snake		Gui Si	February 10, 2013
	Horse		Jia Wu	January 31, 2014
	Goat		Yi Wei	February 19, 2015
	Monkey		Bing Shen	February 8, 2016
	Rooster		Ding You	January 28, 2017
	Dog		Wu Xu	February 16, 2018
	Boar		Ji Hai	February 5, 2019

Reference : www.knowingfood.com

White Snake Legend

This is a love story about a man and a white snake. The first short tale was found during the Tang Dynasty (618 AD). That’s a cautionary, vigilant and tragic story of a man in love with a lady in white. The scenes of West Lake and Thunder Pagoda were added and the central theme was established during the Song Dynasty (960 AD). The entire story was completed during the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD). It was rewritten to beautify characters in some episodes in Ching Dynasty (1644 AD).

Once upon a time, a white snake and a green snake who had magical power in the Mountain Er-Mei and had transformed into two beautiful young ladies, on white, one green. They met a man named Hsu Sheng at the West Lake of Hang-Zhou city. The white snake fell in love with Hsu Sheng at first sight. They got married soon after.
The Lady White helped her husband to open an herbal medicine store by writing the prescriptions. Patients unable to pay were given free treatment and medicine. The store quickly became well known and popular. One day a monk called Fa Hai saw the couples and warned Hsu Sheng that his wife was a white snake.

It was during the Dragon Boat Festival, when Chinese families like to decorate with calamus and Chinese mugwort around the house and drink wine to drive away spirits. This was dangerous to Lady White and Lady Green, since they were spirits after all. Lady White was pregnant at that time and her magical power had weakened a lot. She tried to drink wine to please her husband. Unfortunately, she couldn’t control herself and turned into her snake body in her bedroom. Hsu Sheng saw the white snake and was literally scared to death.

In order to save her husband's life, Lady White went to steal the resurrection plant on the Kunlun Mountain. She failed. But her true love won the resurrection plant and the life of Hsu Sheng was restored.

Hsu Sheng remembered Fa Hai and went to the Golden Mountain Temple to see him. Fa Hai suggested Hsu Sheng become a monk to forget his wife. Fa Hai could take care the spirits. Lady White asked a great army of underwater creatures for help and brought forth a flood over the Golden Mountain Temple to fight with Fa Hai. Fa Hai had the magical power too and asked the heavenly soldiers to save his temple. Since the Lady White was pregnant, she was too weak to fight harder, She gave up the battle and waited for the time after giving birth.
Hsu Sheng went to see his son and carried a magical hat from Fa Hai for his son. The magical hat captured the White Snake. Fa Hai imprisoned the White Snake inside the Thunder Pagoda.
The Green Snake was unable to fight Fa Hai alone, escaped and practiced in her magical power even harder. After the son of Lady White grew up. She took revenge by destroying the Thunder Pagoda and rescued White Snake. White Snake reunited with her husband and her son. The story ended here.

reference : www.chinesefortunecalendar.com

Huang Di - The Emperor who started it all

Huang Di, or the Yellow Emperor, is referred to as the "Originator of the Chinese Culture", and all people of the Chinese race regard themselves as descendants of Yan Di and Huang Di.

With the original surname of Gongsun (later changed to Ji) and another name Youxiong Shi, Huang Di was also known as Xuanyuan Shi as he lived at the Xuanyuan Hill. A clan leader towards the end of China's primitive society, Huang Di was the full brother of Yan Di with whom he shared the country. He formed an alliance with Yan Di in later years against the invasion of Chiyou, the chieftain of the Jiuli Tribe. A decisive battle was fought at Zhuolu in the northwest of the present Hebei Province. Legend goes that at the beginning of the battle, Chiyou sneezed out a thick fog all over the place which lasted three days, and the soldiers of Huang Di could not tell their directions. Fortunately Huang Di led his men out of the fog by the "compass chariot" he had invented and won complete victory.

The alliance of Huang Di and Yan Di split after Chiyou was defeated because, it was said, Yan Di intended to infringe upon the various tribes and seize the leading position of the alliance while the chieftains of the tribes preferred to obey Huang Di. As a result the two leaders fought at Banquan. After three fierce battles, Huang Di won victory and was made the "Son of Heaven" by the tribe chieftains.

Strict and impartial, Huang Di was able to get rid of the evil for the people. It was said that Gu, son of the God of Mount Zhongshan named Zhulong, murdered another god at Mount Kunlun in collaboration with a deity called Qinpi. The Yellow Emperor was indignant at their atrocity and immediately had them killed.

The Yellow Emperor was a highly gifted "Son of Heaven". Legend goes that he was the inventor of many things such as making clothes, manufacturing boats and vehicles, building houses and palaces, etc. He also had his court officials Lun Ling make musical instruments, Da Nao compile the Heavenly Stems and the Earthly Branches*, and Cang Ji invent the Chinese characters. The country was in good order and prosperity and the people lived a happy life.

There were indeed quite a number of wars at the time, which however, broke the narrow limits between the different clans and promote (their merging. The ancient Huaxia nationality was thus gradually formed, being the predecessor of the Han nationality to which the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people belong.

It is said that Yao, Shun and the monarchs of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were all descendants of the Yellow Emperor. He was thus regarded as the first ancestor of the Chinese nation and to him was attributed the creation of all Chinese cultural institutions.

reference : http://journeyeast.tripod.com/huang_di.html

HUA MULAN

When the Huns, led by the ruthless Shan Yu, invade China, each family is given a conscription notice. Mulan's father, Fa Zhou has to serve in the army but he is too old, and he will not survive. Fa Mulan disguises herself as a man, then takes her father's conscription notice, armor, and weapons so that he will not have to go. She rides away on her horse, Khan, to join the army, knowing that if she were caught she would be killed.

Mushu, a small dragon who had been demoted to gong ringer by Mulan's ancestors, is asked to awaken the "Great Stone Dragon". Mushu accidentally destroys the Dragon but realizes that this could be an opportunity to earn his place among the guardians again if he can make Mulan a war hero.

Mulan trains with a group led by Captain Li Shang including fellow soldiers Ling, Yao, and Chien Po. The troops complete their training, but Chi Fu, the Emperor's meddling and misogynistic adviser refuses to let them see battle, accusing the troops of being ill prepared. Mushu forges a letter from the General, ordering Li Shang to take his men to battle. The troops set out to meet General Li, who has already left on a mission. However, Li Shang and his troops discover that the General and his men were killed in battle.

Captain Li Shang and his troops continue, disheartened by their loss, when they are ambushed by Hun archers. After an initial attack, the Huns are believed to be defeated, but the troops soon discover otherwise. As they are setting up the last cannon to fire at the Huns, Mulan spots a precarious mound of snow on the upper mountain side. As the Huns charge down the mountain Mulan takes the cannon and fires the rocket at the snow mound. The collision of the rocket and the snow mound causes an avalanche which spreads over the charging Huns, burying them. Captain Li's soldiers take refuge while Mulan rescues Captain Li from being swept away by the snow.

During treatment, Mulan's true identity is discovered. Captain Li is notified and is expected to execute Mulan, but spares her life and considers his pardon an exchange for Mulan saving his own life. Instead, Captain Li expels her from the army. Mulan decides to return home but hears the Huns emerging from the snow that had blanketed them during the earlier battle. She tries to warn Captain Li's troops as they are heralded by citizens in a parade for their war efforts, but they do not listen. As the Emperor addresses the crowd, the Huns, disguised as parade characters, kidnap him.

Captain Li and his troops try to follow the Huns into the palace but are unsuccessful. Mulan devises a ploy with the other soldiers to dress as concubines, scale the castle wall and infiltrate the castle. When the Huns lower their defenses in the presence of the "women", Mulan and her friends swiftly dispatch them all. During this attack the Emperor is safely removed from the palace by Chien Po, but Captain Li and Mulan are both trapped on the balcony with Shan Yu. Shan Yu is about kill Captain Li when Mulan gets his attention. The Hun recognizes her from the mountain battle and gives chase. Mulan lures Shan Yu onto the palace rooftop where they face each other in personal combat, until Mushu, as arranged by Mulan, propels a huge firecracker that hits Shan Yu and carries him off to his death. The fate of the remaining five Hun warriors is never fully disclosed.

The Emperor meets Mulan and, in an accusatory tone, lists Mulan's crimes, but he pardons her. The Emperor then bows to Mulan, which is considered an extremely high honor as it implies being of a higher status than the Emperor, and the crowd follow suit. The Emperor then offers Mulan a position in his staff but Mulan refuses the offer and confesses that she wants to return home. He gives her Shan Yu's sword, along with his crest, for her to bring home and give honour to her family.

Upon her return, Mulan expects to be reprimanded but is instead embraced by her family. Captain Li arrives to talk with Mulan, having been encouraged to propose. The ancestors reluctantly agree to make Mushu a guardian once more.

Reference : www.wikipedia.com

Dragon

The Chinese dragon, unlike its western cousin, is considered to be a benevolent creature, the custodian of rain, river and lakes, and a harbinger of good fortune.

In Chinese mythology the dragon is described as having the body of a snake, the face of a horse, antlers of the deer and claws of the eagle. The dragon has the beard of a goat and the scales of a fish. But where did such a creature come from? Is there any evidence to suggest such a creature ever existed?

Well, sadly not. No such creature's remains have ever been found, although records of dragons in Chinese culture go back many thousands of years.

One explanation of how the dragon came to be is as follows. Early societies had as their tribal mascot an animal - for example a horse or a camel or a fish. This is in fact something which we observe even today with the American eagle, the British lion or the Russian bear. These symbols were used both for religious as well as military purposes, and rather as the Romans would march with the Eagle as their standard, these emblems were used as military insignia.

The theory goes that as a tribe went to battle and conquered another, it would incorporate some form of the conquered tribe's ensignia. In this way it is beleived the Xia clan, who had a snake as its emblem annexed states such as the Shang - an eagle. Thus, to the snake's body was added the claws of the eagle. Soon the scales of fish, antlers of the deer, face of the horse and the beard of the goat all came to be incorporated, and thereby the Chinese dragon came into being.

So powerful did the emblem of the dragon become that it was adopted by every Chinese dynasty as the Imperial emblem, from Huang Di to the Qing (Manchu) Dyanasty without exception. As early as the Tang and Song Dynasties Dragon King Temple's were built where the people could pray for blessings and a good harvest - all in the hands of the dragons as they controlled the rain.

reference : www.chinatown-online.co.uk