| Spring Festival——The Chinese New Year | |
| The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Beginning of Spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coodination with the changes of Nature). The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees. The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the people's sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one more>> |
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| The Origin of Chinese New Year | |
The origin of Chinese New Year is too old to be traced. Several explanations are hanging around. All agree, however, that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese solely means "year", was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year. One legend goes that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one bite. People were very scared. One day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to subdue Nian. To Nian he said more>> |
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| Local customs | Chinese New Year Food | ||
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Many customs accompany the Spring Festival. Some are still followed today, but others have weakened. On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge, a delicious kind of porridge made with glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job's tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko. |
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Chinese New Year Foods are very important to Chinese people. All family members come together to eat at this time. Chinese New Year foods are not only delicious but it is traditional to eat certain foods over this festival. Chinese Dumplings, Fish, Spring Rolls, Nian Gao are usually seen as delicious and eaten at this time. |
| The 23rd day of the 12th lunar month is called Preliminary Eve. At this time, people offer sacrifice to the kitchen After the Preliminary Eve, people begin preparing for the coming New Year. This is called "Seeing the New Year in". Store owners are busy then as everybody goes out to purchase necessities for the New Year... |
With a long history of more than 1,800 years,dumplings are a traditional food widely popular in China, especially in North China such as in Zhengzhou, Chengde, Dalian, Harbin, etc. Dumplings generally consist of minced meat and finely-chopped vegetables wrapped into a thin and elastic piece of dough skin. Popular fillings are mince pork, diced shrimp, fish, ground chicken, beef... | ||
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| Chinese New Year Activities | ||||
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