1. easy
2. small
3. big
4. short
5. tall
6. safe
7. dark
8. light
9. dirty
10. white
11. black
12. worth
13. fool
14. long
15. long time
16. success
17. noisy
18. loud
19. late
20. enough
21. bad smell
22. famous
23. intelligent
24. fault
25. dare
26. honest
27. anxious
28. shame
29. more
30. hungry
Spring Festival
The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese
people 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, often
one month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the
Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the people’s sacrifice
to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning
of a new one.
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.
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 glutinous rice, millet,
seeds of Job’s tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and
gingko.
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
Year. This is called “Seeing the New Year in”.
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.
Then people begin decorating their clean rooms featuring an
atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted
with Spring Festival couplets, 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.
The Chinese character “fu” (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must.
The character put on paper can be pasted normally or upside down, for
in Chinese the “reversed fu” is homophonic with “fu comes”, both being
pronounced as “fudaole.” What’s 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 meanings may be put on the wall.
People attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve. At that time,
all family members eat dinner together. The meal is more luxurious
than usual. Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be
excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively “ji“, “yu“
and “doufu,” mean auspiciousness, abundance and richness. After
the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting and watching
TV. In recent years, the Spring Festival party broadcast on China
Central Television Station (CCTV) is essential entertainment for the
Chinese both at home and abroad. According to custom, each family
will stay up to see the New Year in.
Waking up on New Year, everybody dresses up. First they extend
greetings to their parents. Then each child will get money as a New
Year gift, wrapped up in red paper. People in northern China will eat
jiaozi, or dumplings, for breakfast, as they think “jiaozi” in sound
means “bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new”. Also,
the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China. So
people eat them and wish for money and treasure.
Southern Chinese eat niangao (New Year cake made of glutinous
rice flour) on this occasion, because as a homophone, niangao
means “higher and higher, one year after another.” The first five days
after the Spring Festival are a good time for relatives, friends, and
classmates as well as colleagues to exchange greetings, gifts and
chat leisurely.
Burning fireworks was once the most typical custom on the Spring
Festival. People thought the spluttering sound could help drive away
evil spirits. However, such an activity was completely or partially
forbidden in big cities once the government took security, noise and
pollution factors into consideration. As a replacement, some buy
tapes with firecracker sounds to listen to, some break little balloons
to get the sound too, while others buy firecracker handicrafts to hang
in the living room.
The lively atmosphere not only fills every household, but permeates
to streets and lanes. A series of activities such as lion dancing, dragon
lantern dancing, lantern festivals and temple fairs will be held for days.
The Spring Festival then comes to an end when the Lantern Festival
is finished.
China has 56 ethnic groups. Minorities celebrate their Spring Festival
almost the same day as the Han people, and they have different
customs.