Chinese New Year’s Greeting: 恭喜发财

恭喜发财 Gong Xi Fa Cai

Congratulations and be prosperous !

This is the most popular greeting around Chinese Spring Festival.

Chinese New Year, also known as the Chinese Lunar New Year or the Chinese Spring Festival, is one of the traditional Chinese holidays. Celebrated internationally in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, Chinese New Year is considered to be the most important holiday for the Chinese as well as ethnic groups such as the Mongolians, Koreans, the Miao and the Vietnamese, who were influenced by Chinese culture in terms of religious and philosophical worldview, language and culture in general. Chinese new year is also the time when the largest human migration takes place when Chinese all around the world return home on Chinese New Year eve to have reunio dinner with their family.A reunio dinner is held on Chinese New Year’s Eve wher members of the family, near and far, get together for celebration. If you know about Chinese New Year better, I am sure you can learn Chinese much faster, ChineseHour promises.

When is Chinese New Year celebrated?

Chinese New year is celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar, which falls on the day of the second new moon after the day on which the winter solstice occurs, unless there is an intercalary eleventh or twelfth month in the lead-up to the New Year. In this case, the Chinese New Year falls on the day of the third new moon after the solstice. The next time this occurs is in 2033.The New Year season lasts fifteen days. The first week is the most important and most often celebrated with visits to friends and family as well as greetings of good luck. The celebrations end on the important and colourful Lantern Festival on the evening of the 15th day of the month.

Chinese New Year Greetings and Traditions

Get rooms cleaned: 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.

spring_festival_couplets.jpg春联 Spring Festival couplets: 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 (春联 chunlian), 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.

“福”到 FU comes: 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.

除夕 Spring Festival Eve: 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 春节联欢晚会 (chunjie lianhuan wanhui) 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.

饺子 jiaozi: 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.

年糕 niangao: 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.

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恭喜发财 Greeting expressions and Gift money: Waking up on New Year, everybody dresses up. First they extend greetings to their parents. Then each child and unmarried members of the family will get money as a New Year gift, wrapped up in red paper. The second day of the Chinese New Year is usually for visiting the family of the wife if a couple is married. The two most popular greetings during the Chiense New Year celebration season are (in Mandarin): “恭喜发财 Gong Xi Fa Cai”, and “新年快乐 Xin Nian Kuai Le”. These roughly mean “Congratulations and be prosperous (financially)”, and “Happy New Year”.

放鞭炮 Burning fireworks: Burning fireworks are the most typical custom on the Spring Festival. People thought the spluttering sound could help drive away evil spirits. Besides, Chinese New Year is celebrated with Chinese dragon dances and lion dances.

舞龙\舞狮 Dragon and lion dancing: The lively atmosphere not only fills every household, but permeates to streets and lanes. A series of activities such as dragon and 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.

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The two most popular greetings during the Chiense New Year celebration season are (in Mandarin), please read aloud and keep them in mind. Do speak them out when meeting any Chinese people around Chinese New Year

恭喜发财 Gong Xi Fa Cai, Congratulations and be prosperous

新年快乐 Xin Nian Kuai Le, Happy New Year