Like Christmas in many Western countries, Spring Festival is the most important festival in China.
It starts from the 1st day of the 1st month of Chinese lunar calendar and lasts till the 15th day of this month. But actually to ordinary families, the Spring Festival already begins in early days of the 12th lunar month.
Lively atmosphere is prevailing over the streets and shops. The shop owners become busy even one month before the New Year when people start to buy some necessities for the New Year. During the festival, kinds of public activities are held, such as dragon-playing and lion-dancing.
The Spring Festival can be traced back to Shang Dynasty (1600BC – 1100BC). During the past thousands of years, many customs have been formed. Some are still followed today while some are weakened.

On 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge. Ba of laba means eight in Chinese. As it literally means, the laba porridge is made with 8 components, which are 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. In old times, people offered sacrifices to the kitchen god. However, people prepare delicious food to enjoy themselves now.
After the Preliminary Eve, Chinese people begin preparations for the coming New Year. They buy new clothes, bedclothes, and new utensils. They clean up their houses and decorate the house into an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity.
Almost every family decorates their door panels with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting
Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The contents of the couplets
express the house owners’good wishes for the coming year, such as auspiciousness,
abundance and wealth.
The Chinese character Fu (福) is a must for Spring Festival. Fu means welfare and good

fortune. Big characters Fu written on red papers are used to decorate house and furniture,

oranything the house owner like. And people like to paste reversed Fu. Because reversed
Fu is homophonic with “Fu comes”.
Two big red lanterns are often hung on both sides of the front door. And red
paper-cutting are also popular to paste on windows.

On New Year’s Eve, all the members of families come back home and enjoy the united time. It is a good chance to get together and enjoy leisure time for family members who are busy working in different places in the past one year. New Year’s Eve Dinner can be said the most formal dinner in a year. Some house wives prepare for this dinner even days before. There are some dishes that cannot be excluded, such as fish and chicken. Because fish (鱼) and chicken (鸡) respectively means abundance and auspiciousness in Chinese language.

This evening, a TV program named Spring Festival Get-together is broadcast on China Central Television Station (CCTV). It has been an essential entertainment for Chinese people both home and abroad in the past 20 years. After dinner, family members sit together, chatting and watching TV. It is the custom to stay up to see the New Year in.
Chinese people like to light fire-cracker this evening. It is children’s favorite activity. When the clock ticks 12 o’ clock at midnight, almost every family lights fire-cracker in the hope of driving away evil spirits and welcoming the New Year.

Waking up on New Year, people dress up new clothes. They will firstly greet their parents and the seniors in the family. Children will get money wrapped in red paper. The breakfast will be Jiaozi (dumplings) in northern China. Jiaozi means “bidding farewell to the old and embracing the new”.
Furthermore, Jiaozi looks like gold ingot in ancient China. So people hope that eating Jiaozi may bring them money and fortune in the future.
In southern China, people eat Niangao as breakfast. It is a kind of cake made of glutinous rice
flour. Niangao is a homophone meaning “higher and higher, one year after another”.The first
five days of the New Year is a good chance for family members, friends, relatives, colleagues
as well as classmates to exchange greetings and gifts, and chat leisurely.
Now China has legalized a 7-day Spring Festival holiday, from New Year’s Eve to the 6th day
of 1st lunar month. People have enough time to get relaxed.
The last day of the Spring Festival is the Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the 1st lunar month.
The moon is full for the first time in the lunar New Year. Chinese people eat Yuanxiao (also called Tangyuan) on that day. It is kind of like round pudding, made out of glutinous rice flour, with various fillings. These round shaped Yuanxiao symbolizes family unity, completeness and happiness.
Lantern Festival, as it literally means, is a festival related to lanterns. People decorate their house with red lanterns. Many lantern

fairs are held across the countries. Various kinds of lanterns are exhibited to the public. Some are designed in traditional spherical shape, and some are design into the shapes of dragons, birds, butterflies and other animals. Anyway, the lantern fair will full please the audience’ eyes and beyond their imagination.
When the evening comes and all lanterns are lit, parents take their children to the fair to appreciate beautiful lanterns.

People believe that after the good rest during the Spring Festival, they can have better energy

to work in the rest days of the year.
Welcome to come to China and experience this unique festival.

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