How to Understand Some of the Chinese New Year Traditions

Full of symbolism and portent, the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival as it’s sometimes called, is an important celebration for a large part of Asia. Here's how you can understand the significance of what is said, displayed and eaten during this celebration.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. The Chinese New Year is also called the Spring Festival because the festival occurs at the beginning of spring.

2. The Chinese lunar cycle is 29.5 days, so the Chinese calendar doesn’t match up fully with our Julian calendar. The Chinese add an extra “leap” month every 7 years in a 19-year cycle. This mismatching with the Julian calendar also means that the Spring Festival always lands on different day for each year.

3. The color red is seen splashed across door frames and in brightly colored streamers flowing off dragon’s backs. Red is an important aspect of the Spring Festival, originating from an old tale about the man-eating beast Nian. Since red is the color the beast feared most, tradition holds that people put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year's end to scare away Nian.

4. The term "Guo Nian," which may mean "Survive the Nian" becomes today "Celebrate the (New) Year" as the word "guo" in Chinese having both the meaning of "pass-over" and "observe." The custom of putting up red paper and firing fire-crackers to scare away Nian should it have a chance to run loose is still practiced.

5. The traditional Spring Festival cake, called “Nian Gao” is eaten because Nian means “year” and Gao means “high.”

6. Before the New Year starts, you thoroughly clean your house, sweeping each room. Take care to sweep into the middle of the room and then to pile the dust into a corner of the room where it will remain until the fifth day of the celebration. On that day the dust will be carried outside through the front door and dumped, never swept, out the door as you would be sweeping the fortunes of the house out the door.

7. Cutting things during the Spring Festival is considered extremely unlucky. In some Chinese houses scissors are thrown out before the New Year to avoid accidentally cutting something that would normally bring good fortune to the house.

8. The word for chicken sounds similar to “health” and so a whole chicken, including head and feet, is roasted and served during the New Year. To cut a chicken before cooking means that you are cutting your body’s health shorter.

9. In a similar vein, the word for fish sounds like “abundance” and so a whole fish is served during the New Year. Again, don’t cut the fish before cooking to keep your family’s wealth intact and long-lasting.

10. Noodles are also kept un-cut before cooking to keep one’s life expectancy longer. To cut the noodles would shorten your life.

11. Oranges and mandarins are eaten with reverence during the celebrations due to the fact that the word for orange means “good luck” in Northern China.

12. The ingredients in Harmony Boxes also carry importance. In order to have the most favorable year you are expected to sample one of every kind of snack in the tray. One example of the contents of these Togetherness Trays is peanuts, which are associated with longevity because of the wording of peanut sounds similar to “longevity.”

13. If you try "fa-kao," a kind of rice cake, look at the cracks--the wider they are, the more prosperous the new year will be, according to tradition.

14. Eight treasures rice also contains several fortuitous ingredients. Chestnuts are thought to bring sons into the family and shrimp are considered lucky to have in a dish. The ingredients in eight treasures change depending on whether it’s a sweet or savory version, but the chestnuts are always present in the rice.

15. At the beginning of the celebration, a vegetarian dish called “Jai” is served. This dish, full of root vegetables, also has several different kinds of prosperous foods encompassed in it. Lotus seeds signify many male offspring will be born soon. Ginko nuts are shaped similarly to a silver ingot, and so those are also present in the dish.

16. The traditional dumpling, “jiaozi,” is sometimes folded to resemble a silver ingot. In addition, the dumplings hide different special fillings which dictate what the eater will look forward to during the year. If you eat a jiaozi and you have a coin in the middle, you will have no problems with money in the next year.

17. Jiaozi also sounds similar to the words for the end of the year and the beginning of a new year, so these dumplings are one of the most commonly eaten foods during the Spring Festival.

18. All of these traditions are just a small part of the symbolism and rituals that occur during the Chinese New Year. If you wish to learn more, seek out a local Chinese Buddhist temple and talk with one of the practitioners there.

[jpersing]

on 7/5/2009 Wow, this article ties together why I always have noodles on my bday and that I got a jade fish for abundance. Thanks very much.