Dear Steemit friends:
In China, the Spring Festival is the most popular festival celebrated by pretty much the entire population. The festival has a history of over 4000 years originating in the Yin-Shang dynasty where ancestors would give sacrifices to honour their own ancestors as well as the gods. The Spring Festival represents the beginning of the season of Spring and thus welcoming warmer weather as well as waving goodbye to months of winter hardship. It's a festival that is celebrated by everyone because it represents a happy and joyous time.
Spring Festival cultural significance：
The Spring Festival is a festival very much needed by Chinese people. For one, it is when people have the longest public holiday，a much needed time for rest. It's also the perfect time for people to gather with their close family and spend some quality time with their loved ones. In China, the people are very community based and thus, close family is something regarded very highly. Spring festival is a time for people to show filial respect to their parents and elders by spending more time with them. To Chinese people all over the world outside of China, it is a time that will make them miss their family the most and remind them of their love for their country and family. This is why to most people Spring Festival has a special fixed and divine place in their hearts.
Below is some Spring Festival sacrifices.
Spring Festival Customs：
There are actually many ancient customs for Spring Festival, one is the lunar new years eve. This is the last night, of the last month in the 12 lunar months. We call this Chu Xi. Lunar New Years day is the Spring Festivals first official day and the entire festival lasts for the first 15 days of the new Lunar Month. There are actually many other customs during each of these days, so many that I could write a whole book about them. Today, the customs have become greatly simplified and just the most significant ones remain. Below, lets take a look what customs are still popular today..
1. Buying Chinese New Year Merchandise
Before Chu Xi, every household will spend quite some time doing housework and making their household as clean and tidy as possible. Of course, without tidying up, how can we make space for all these new year merchandise we're about to purchase? So what do people actually buy for Chinese New Year? Usually it's food, clothes and things of utility. So, follow me as we go shopping in the supermarket for these Chu Xi new year merchandise.
At Spring festival, perhaps one of the most important activities in recent times is the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. This show has been around for 34 years now, and it has become tradition for families to watch the Spring festival Gala on the TV every Spring Festival.
Galas are still held across the world where people can enjoy some live shows and acts, but the CCTV one is watched by almost all families in China. It runs for several hours so people usually like to snack on things. And that's what we're buying here!
Crispy, Flakey, Sweets and other soft candies.
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There are various melon seeds, peanuts and even pistachio nuts. These are all foods which bring good omen, so you will find these along side many soft candies on the tea table which can be eaten whilst watching the Spring Festival Gala on TV.
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Of course celebrating the Spring Festival is not complete without buying Alcohol
Hot Chilli fried with Shelled Peanuts. A perfect dish eaten along side Alcoholic drinks.
At New Year, all the packaging for most products are the auspicious colour of deep red. They're also usually on discount!
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At new years, we'll eat a special kind of rice called eight treasures rice. It's very filling, slightly sweet and is perfect for sharing with the family. It represents reunion and is made out of 8 different kinds of ingredients in addition to the rice itself. Eating it is suppose to represent auspiciousness, luckiness and health and safety.
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These are hawthorn tree cakes made from... Hawthorn Trees!
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Seafood is another must eat during New Years celebrations, the fish is a homonym for the word abundance which symbolises continued prosperity. Other than fish, we also have fresh prawns.
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Other fresh meats.
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This is the year of the chicken, so we have chicken wings, chicken feet and chicken thighs!
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Lots of tradition snacks here for sale, for example, dried yams, fried dough twists, and even glutinous rice strips.
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2.Post Spring Festival Couplets
Very auspicious toy birds.
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So what's inside this lucky bag？
Another spring festival couplet, and a traditional paper cutting.
On the morning of Chu Xi (the new years eve) it is customary to post these rhyming couplets. The character lucky should be posted upside down because when lucky is upside down, it is also with us. In Chinese characters this makes perfect sense!
(福倒了寓意福到了)
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3.Fighting over red envelopes!
On the first day of the lunar month, it is custom to have little firecrackers and firework shows. Nowadays, firecrackers have been restricted to try reduce environmental pollution. Another custom is for young people to go from door to door of every house in the neighbourhood and pay a house call to offer new years wishes to the elderly．Children would kneel down and say happy new year hoping for a red envelope in return.
Of course nowadays with advancing technology, most people don't call door to door wishing them happy new year anymore. Just a simple message on Wechat. And a new way of fighting over red envelopes in Wechat groups!
On WeChat, all you have to do is click on the red envelope sent to you by your friends or family, and you receive money! Some can only be opened once, so we have to be quick!
Actually there are so many customs, more than I could ever cover in one post, hopefully i'll get to write about them in the future. Happy new year everyone, and have a very Auspicious Year of the Rooster!
春节，中国民间最隆重、最热闹的一个传统节日。春节的文化意义：准确的说,中国人需要春节这个节日, 人们不仅在这个节日里得到了工作一年最长的假期，更给人们一个机会回家看看亲人。在中国的文化里，人们喜欢生活在群体当中，亲情和家庭更是中国人最看重的部分。春节给了人们一个好的孝敬父母的机会，全家团圆的机会，对于生活在世界上其他国家的中国人，更是一个思念家乡，传达对祖国和亲朋的爱的好机会。所以春节在中国人心中有着神圣不可动摇的地位。下面是春节的祭祖。 春节的风俗习惯：关于春节的古老风俗习惯，有着从节日前，除夕，春节当天，一直到正月十五一系列繁琐的习俗，在过去人们关于春节的讲究非常多，可以写满好几张A4纸，但是随着时代的变迁，如今的人们过春节去除了一些繁琐的规矩，保留下精髓的部分，下面就请大家和我一起去看看现代春节的那些有趣的习俗。 1. 购买年货。除夕之前，每户人家都要搞大扫除，人们习惯要家里搞得干干净净，焕然一新的迎接新的一年。接下来就进入到漫长的购买年货的部分，年货包括人们吃的，穿的和用的，今天我就带大家走进超市，看看除夕前一天的购买吃的年货盛况。各种瓜子类，花生和开心果，都是有好的兆头的，它们会和各种软糖放在茶几上同一个盘子里，边看春晚边吃。过节的时候，当然少不了买酒。辣椒炒花生米，下酒菜必备。过年的时候，包装都换成了大红色，并且都在打折。过年吃的八宝饭，分量足，口感甜，特别适合家人一起分享，象征团团圆圆。它由8种食材做成，有吉祥平安的意思。今年是鸡年，所以有鸡翅膀，鸡爪子，鸡腿。各种传统的小零食，紫署干，麻花，江米条。 2.贴春联。喜庆的小鸡玩偶。看看福包里有什么？一对春联，还有窗花。除夕的早上要贴对联。福字要倒贴，福倒了寓意福到了。 3.抢红包。大年初一的时候，习俗是放炮竹，除旧迎新，不过由于雾霾的环境污染，现在已经严禁放炮竹了。另外一个习俗就是挨家挨户给长辈亲朋们拜年了，孩子们会跪着给爷爷奶奶拜年，索要红包。不过随着时代的发展，人们现在都通过手机上的微信给人拜年，并且开展人们乐此不疲的抢红包活动。在微信上，点开电子红包，就能收到钱。过年的传统习俗有很多很多，以后有时间再给大家介绍其他的，最后还是祝大家新年快乐，鸡年大吉。