Celebrating the Chinese New Year

The history of how and why celebrate the New Year in China, goes back to ancient times. As in all countries where the seasons are clearly traced and where the winter is a rather severe season, in China the arrival of spring was awaited with great impatience. The new year came when nature began to awaken from hibernation. Historians argue that in ancient times, to induce nature to get up from sleep and drive away the evil spirits of winter, people even sacrificed human sacrifices. Now, of course, no one sacrifices anybody, and the Chinese New Year has turned into a pretty nice and colorful holiday.

When are they celebrating this date? The Chinese used to live on a calendar based on the moon, so the New Year came on them on the first day of the first month of this calendar. Since the lunar months do not coincide with the solar (calendar), the Chinese New Year always falls on another date - from the end of January to the first half of February. In 2013, it will come on 10 February. The whole celebration lasts, according to the ancient custom, exactly two weeks. But this most important holiday is being prepared for many days before it comes. The meaning of celebrating the New Year from the Chinese is somewhat different from the European one: if for us it is simply a milestone in our life, then for the Chinese this is a rite that must be strictly observed, so that next year you will be expected with happiness and luck. Therefore, the celebration ceremony is painted to the smallest detail.

New Year in China, in addition to the direct name "sinyanya" is often called the word "chunjie", which means the Spring Festival. There is one more name for Chinese New Year: "Gonyan". According to the legends, the wild beast Gonyan was so terrible that from one species of trees the trees were thrown off the leaves and the grass was limp. But people found an ingenious way to drive away Ghanaian. It turned out that this animal is afraid of panic and noise ... of red color. Therefore, on this holiday it is customary to launch noisy fireworks into the sky and dress in all the red.

Each lunar year, the Chinese are dedicated to one of the twelve mystical animals that have their own colors. Thus, the year of the blue Mouse or the year of the Red Dragon is obtained. The animal of the coming year is celebrated with special splendor. 2013 will be the year of the Serpent. If we want to meet the Chinese New Year at home , the traditions dictate that in a few days we carefully clean all of our dwelling. This general cleaning is not so much sanitary and hygienic as ritual: you sweep out all the bad things from your home, all illnesses, adversities and disasters. Traditional Chinese also paint with fresh red paint shutters, doors and columns supporting the roof of the house, so that the more likely to frighten off Goijan.

In every Chinese house there is an image of the god of the hearth - Tsao Chan. It is believed that the Chinese New Year Tsao Chan goes to heaven to tell the gods about the behavior of family members. Therefore, on the eve of the New Year, the image is smeared with honey lips to cajole, and then burn, helping along with the smoke to reach heaven. The next day the place of the old image of the hearth god is already occupying a new one. On the eve of New Year's Eve ("show"), doors and windows are sealed with colored paper to scare off evil demons. The whole family is going from small to large together. Everyone wears new clothes of red color, they eat traditional ritual dishes, which traditions prescribe to eat on New Year's Day (for example, dumplings of jiaozi), have fun and play lotto.

If you want to celebrate the lunar New Year according to Chinese traditions, you will need to buy gifts to loved ones and necessarily subordinates. In addition, it is necessary to purchase fake, paper clothes and fake "dollars." It is believed that if you burn all these paper sacrifices, then real money and all profits will certainly come to you. Therefore, congratulations with the Chinese New Year should be appropriate: on this day it is customary to wish not only happiness, but necessarily good luck in business and the birth of sons.