Spring+Festival+China

= ** CHINA ** =

õ Spring festival is the first of three living festivals.
==== õ The holiday is celebrated with family gatherings, gift giving, eating symbolic food and the display of decorations – all focused on bringing good luck for the new year and celebrating the coming of Spring. ====

õ In ancient China, the Spring Festival was a time to honor the emperor.
==== õ The 12th month of the Chinese year is called La Yue. It is known as the month of offerings. People reflect on the past year, clean house, offer sacrifices to gods and drive away evil spirits. “Sweeping out the old, and welcoming the new.” ====

õ The festival ends with the Lantern Festival, or Yuanxiao Ji // (Yüan Hsiao Chieh). //
==== This is the most important festival of the year for the Chinese. Cities observe it as an official holiday from the first to the third. Sometimes businesses, shops, and schools are closed for several weeks after New Year Day. Celebrations are similar throughout the country, but there are variations between Northern, Central, Southern, and Western China. Through house cleaning should be completed prior to New Year Day, lest all new good fortune be swept away. Debts should also be settled. ====

==== On New Year’s eve Children are encouraged to stay up as late as possible and some believe that the longer their children stay up the longer they will live. Another New Year’s eve custom is to bath in water steeped in crushed fragrant lime leaves, which cleanses to the body in preparation for the New year. ====

==== On New Year Day, according to tradition, people rise early, dress in their best clothes, then welcome the gods of Heaven and Earth. As the front door is opened the master of the house says a blessing of prosperity for the coming year. Sacrifices and offerings are made to ancestors. Respectful deep bowing is made to elders. Relatives are visited, New Year cards are exchanged (much like Christmas cards are in the West), gifts are given, and firecrackers are set off to prevent evil from following into the New Year and to invoke the gods’ blessings. ====

==== At New Year, people should refrain from saying anything bad, refer to sad events, or any unhappiness. The superstitious believe that unlucky words or events will repeat themselves during the rest of the year. The superstitious believe that unlucky words or events will repeat themselves during the rest of the year. Sweet rice cakes ensure sweetness in life, noodles ensure longevity, fish ensure wealth, and chicken (“lucky” sounding word in Chinese) ensures luck. Many other auspicious foods are eaten during New Year. Red, the color for luck, is worn as well as displayed everywhere. Posters with the character for “fortune” are placed on internal and external doors, doorways, as well as throughout the entire house. ====

Traditional Spring Festival Activities
==== ** A Fresh Start ** : In an effort to begin the New Year with a clean slate and to brush out any bad luck from the previous year, the people of china clean their homes. It is common for gates to be painted and windows to be washed until they shine. ====

==== ** Honoring the Past: ** Throughout the year, a //Kitchen God// poster is placed inside the home, usually near the kitchen stove area. One week before New Year, he ascends to Heaven to report to the Jade Emperor about the family’s behavior during the previous year. His departure to heaven is symbolized by burning his picture along with ceremonial money to provide a first-class round trip. The Kitchen God’s return on New Year’s Eve to an immaculate house is marked by the posting of a new Kitchen God poster near the stove. Thereafter, he resumes his duty as observer of the family and household for another year. Traditionally, an alter for offerings is placed in front of him. To keep him happy he is given the plumpest and most delicious bites of food and sweets before each meal. Just before New Years, families generously slather his lips with honey so that he can only speak sweet words to the Jade Emperor about the household. ====

==== ** Sharing Food: ** During family gatherings, huge banquets would be prepared. Foods that symbolize good fortune and prosperity are served. Foods might include fried spring rolls; which resemble gold bricks; steamed clams, which represent being open to good fortune; vegetables cut into coins; tangerines, kumquats and oranges; whole fish. ====

==== On New Years families prepare a tray of prosperity, jai – a special six-sided platter that has connecting sections filled with candied fruits, melon, and lotus seeds. These foods symbolize riches, longevity, and the blessing of more children. ====

Treats include Law Pak Ko, a savory white carrot cake that contains dried shrimps, and Lin Guo, a sticky rice cake.
==== Among families from northern China, dumplings known as jiaozi are probably the most popular food prepared for the New Year. For the past four hundred years, they have been served for the midnight meal on New Year’s eve. Almost every family has its own special recipe, but the traditional filling is made with ground pork, garlic, chives, and cabbage. Dumplings may be boiled, steamed, or fired until crusty and golden brown. ====

==== ** Decorating: ** In preparation for the festival homes are decorated. Signs and posters are hung on doors and windows with the Chinese character, or fu, which translates to luck and happiness. For extra good luck, Chinese hang fu upside down for extra good luck. Decorating with flowers is also commonplace since they symbolize the coming of spring. ====

[[image:Chunlian.jpg]]
==== Spring Couplets, called Chunlian, are hung which are traditionally two line poems written in Calligraphy with India ink on red paper. They describe good wishes for the coming year. The first line of the poem is called the “head”, the second line is called the “tail” and both phrases are paired with each other word for word. These red banners would then be hung on either side of a door and also above the door. Today spring couplet banners are mass-produced and are often gold lettering on red paper. ====

Banners that read, “Spring” and “Wealth”, may also be hung and sometimes hung upside down since “inverted” is a homonym of “arrive”.
==== ** Door Gods ** are two husky and tough looking generals from the Tang dynasty. They are Qin Qiong (Ch’in Ch’iung) and Yuchi Gong (Yü-ch’i Kung). The source came from a legend about the emperor asking them to stand guard outside his door to prevent ghosts from haunting his dreams. They were successful and the emperor had pictures of them painted on red paper and had them hung on his door. The ghosts never returned. ==== ==== Pictures of these two fierce protectors are posted at the doorway to guard the family against demons. The guards capture, bind with ropes, then throw the demons to the guards’ pet tigers nearby. The guards are dressed in full armor, ready to attack and protect all who reside within. ====

==== ** Fire & Light: ** Bamboo sticks were traditionally burnt to ward off evil spirits (when they were burned the joints would make a loud popping sound). Banozhu (pao chu) means “burning bamboo,” which continues to be the name for firecrackers. ==== ==== Use of Banozhu during the Spring Festival comes from a legend about a monster that hid in the mountains and came down each year to kill people. It was discovered that the monster was afraid of light, red and loud noise and the people used the Banozhu to scare the monster and he ran his head off. ====

==== ** Clothes: ** New clothes are made or bought before New Year’s Day to usher in good luck by starting over with a new wardrobe. Wearing red during New Years celebrations is encouraged since it is associated with good luck. White is not worn because it is a color of mourning. ====

==== ** Rituals: ** As a gift for starting off the New Year with wealth, elders give children money in Red Envelopes called hongbao (hung pao). A child would receive envelopes from his or her parents and grandparents. The red envelope is supposed to mean “good luck” and to ward off evil spirits. The amount of money in the envelopes is supposed to end with an even numbers, odd numbers are often associated with funerals. The amount of money should not end in the number 4 since 4 looks like the word for death in Chinese. Red envelopes are also given to lion dancers during the Spring Festival as payment for favorable performance. Typically newly printed bills are put into envelopes. ====

==== ** Games: ** During New Years, children and adults enjoy many different kinds of games. Jianzi, a game similar to hacky sac, involves bouncing a weighted shuttlecock in the air as long as possible, using any part of the body to propel it. ====

==== ** Performance ** : Performers under a papier-mâché lion head and a highly decorated draped cloth body perform a **Lion Dance** accompanied by a drum and other percussion instruments. Sometimes the lion chases a ball or pearl, representing the sun. The dance style can often be mistaken for a dragon dance. The difference between the two is that the Lion dance requires only 2 people and the faces of the performers are not seen. In the Dragon dance, more than two people carry the dragon on long poles. ====

==== Lion dances can be widely categorized into three separate styles: Northern Chinese, Southern Chinese and Taiwanese. The northern dance is aerobatic and full of stunts. A northern lion will ware a red bow for a male and a green bow for a female. The southern Lion has distinctive large eyes, a red bandage on the head (covering a horn removed by the gods) and a mirror on the forehead that scares away demons. The Taiwanese Lion is less elaborate and the performance integrates more martial arts. ====

==== During the  [|Chinese New Year] , lion dancer troupes from the Chinese martial art schools or Chinese guild and associations will visit the houses and shops of the Chinese community to perform the traditional custom of "cai ching" ( 採青 ), literally means "plucking the greens", a quest by the 'lion' to pluck the auspicious green normally 'vegetables' like lettuce which in Chinese called 'cái'( 菜 )that sound like 'cái'( 财 )(fortune) and auspicious fruit like oranges tied to a  [|"Red Envelope"]  containing money; either hang highly or just put on a table in front of the premises. The "lion" will dance and approach the "green" and "red envelope" like a curious cat, to "eat the green" and "spit" it out leave it in a nice arrangement, like a auspicious character but keep the "red envelope". The lion dance is believed to bring good luck and fortune to the business and the troupe is rewarded with the "red envelope". ==== ==== Different types of vegetables, fruits, foods or utensils with auspicious and good symbolic meanings; for instance pineapples, pamelos, bananas, oranges, sugar cane shoots, coconuts, beer, clay pots or even crabs can be used to be the "greens" ( 青 ) to be "plucked" to give different difficulty and challenge for the lion dance performers. But the difficulties of the challenge should comes with the bigger the rewards of the "red envelope" given. ====

The lion dance is also performed on the eve of the Lantern Festival.
==== Dragon Dance - The dragon can stretch 20 to 30 feet and is supported by numerous people underneath holding it up with long poles. Dragons symbolize fertility, strength, rain and renewal—all things essential for prosperity of mind and body. The dance may appear at the beginning or at the end of the New Year festivities. The dragon dance is accompanied by drums and other percussion instruments. ====