马年说“年”Chinese Spring Festival

The Chinese New Year is celebrated by 1.3 billion people in China and millions more living abroad. It's an opportunity to visit relatives and friends and tell them "Xin-nian-hao" or happy new year. But do you know that "nian" , which translates to year, once referred to a fearsome animal in ancient China. Chinese folklore enthusiast, ZhangYousen, explains.

"Legend has it that Nian is a fearsome beast that would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops and even villagers, especially children. So people light firecrackers to scare the beast away so they can live in peace."

Every year, people celebrated passing of the Nian. Today, Chinese New Year or Nian  is observed as a public holiday in China and a number of other countries and territories where a sizable Chinese population resides. But the preparation for the New Year starts nearly a month before hand.

On the eighth day of the twelfth month, a traditional porridge known as labazhou is served. Here is Mr. Zhang describing the meaning of the porridge.

"When you've had the porridge, you bring it to your relative and neighbours. If there are disagreements between the neighbours and they're not talking to each other, they will start speaking again after having the labazhou."

Cleaning the house is another item on the must-do list before the New Year. It is believed that by cleaning, you are sweeping away the bad luck of the past year and making the home ready for good luck.

"You must make sure that every corner of the house is cleaned and all the dirty clothes washed. Everything must be cleaned before the New Year."

On the twenty-third day, posters of the Kitchen God will be glued to the walls with sweets smeared across his mouth. Legend has it that before the New Year, he will ascend to Heaven. If you gave him enough sweets, he will give a positive report ab0ut your household to the Supreme Jade Emperor of the heavens.

On the days immediately before the New Year celebration, some people give their homes, doors and window-fra-mes a new coat of red paint. Red is the color of luck and happiness in China.

Homes are often decorated with paper cutouts of auspicious phrases and couplets. The couplets, written on red paper, must be pasted on the sides of every door in the house. Here's Mr. Zhang explaining the imp0rtance of this tradition.

"The couplets are posted everywhere. A long time ago, they even had them on horse-drawn carriages. This is to bring safety to the travellers. Couplets are posted on the doors of closets as well. Four characters will be written into one character. The most commonly used characters are 'may you have a bucket of gold a day' or 'half-a-million grams of gold."

Fu-the character for happiness-is another popular choice. It is usually upside-down, symbolizing that happiness has arrived.

Posters of Guardians are also glued onto the doors to protect the home from "Nian".

The biggest event of Chinese New Year's Eve is the Reunio Dinner called "Nian Ye Fan." Mr. Zhang explains what happens.

"No matter how far the children are from home, they have to come back for the dinner. People stay up all night until the first light of dawn, waiting for the arrival of the New Year."

Family members will make dumplings and eat them at midnight. One of the dumplings will have a special filling and whoever eats it will have luck for the rest of the year.

The festivities don't end there. Mr. Zhang talks ab0ut what happens next.

"On the first day, all family members say happy new year to each other. Children will say happy New Year to their grandparents in order to get red pockets of money. On the second day, married women would return to their parents' house with their husband and children. On the third day, you visit your uncles, aunts, cousins."

During the first five days, there are a couple of rules to follow. First, you cannot touch knives, needles or anything sharp. You must only eat the food that you have prepared in the days preceding the New Year.

Here's Mr. Zhang telling us the imp0rtance of the fifth day.

"On the fifth day, you eat dumplings and afterwards, life is back to normal. You can chop vegetables and do needleworks again."

People normally return to work on the eighth day where storeowners will light firecrackers. In the past, around midnight on this day, incense would be burnt and food offerings were made to the Jade Emperor and other deities. But nowadays this is only practiced among the older generation.

On the thirteenth day, people eat pure vegetarian food to clean out their stomach due to consuming too much food in the preceding days.

The fifteenth and the final day of festivities, is celebrated as Yuanxiaojie or the lantern festival. According to Mr. Zhang, it is a day of fun and games.

"The streets are alight with lanterns on the last day of the New Year celebrations. On the lanterns are written various riddles for people to solve. If you solve the riddle, you will receive a prize."

On this day, yuanxiao-or rice dumplings-are consumed by people all over China. This brings the New Year celebrations to an end.