Chinese New Year

Continuing from the previous post, here is about Chinese New Year...

Chinese New Year:

Chinese New Year falls on the first day of the year according to Chinese Lunar Calendar, and ends at the fifteenth day, which is “Chap Go Meh” in Hokkien, or we call it as Lantern Festival.

The origin of Chinese New Year was started of with a mythical beast named “Nian” (Figure 1). Every year of the New Year, “Nian” will always come out from the cave and attack the villagers nearby. So, many villagers were afraid of it, but they do not know what to do. One day, there is one old man in the village states that “Nian” was afraid of the colour Red and the loud voice of firecracker and drums. So the villagers do as what the old man tell them, decorate their house with red paper and scrolls. When “Nian” comes to the village again, the villager starts to play the drums and lit up the firecracker. Just as the old man said, “Nian” run away with fear and never come back to this village again. Everyone was so happy that they recognize this as “passing of “Nian”, and also the same as celebrating New Year. From this incident, Red consider as the colour, which will bring good luck.

Figure 1: "Nian Beast"

Before Chinese New Year, the family will decorate and clean their house by hanging red lantern and scrolls (Figure 2). When it is Chinese New Year eve, the whole family members gather around and have meals together. Then on the day itself, adults will insert some money in “Ang Pao” (Figure 3), which is also means Red Packet, and give it to the children. After receiving red packet from the elder, the family will visit other friend’s house and greet them (Figure 4). Besides than visiting friends, there will be also tradition performance on the street or a certain shop, which is lion dance (Figure 5) and dragon dance (Figure 6).

Figure 2: Red Lanterns

                                    

Figure 3: “Ang Pao”

   

Figure 4: Chinese New Year house visit           

Figure 5: Lion Dance

Figure 6: Dragon Dance

While celebrating Chinese New Year, there are some taboos during these days. One of the taboo is, do not sweep the floor on the actual day itself. As according to the traditional, it is to believe that sweep the floor will sweep away all the good luck in that family. The other taboo is, avoid saying rude words and wearing the colour black. As black colour is consider as the colour of unlucky, and it is wear during funeral. Number “4” also will be avoided, as the pronunciation of 4 in Mandarin which is “Si”, has the same pronunciation as “death” in Mandarin.

References:
Lisa Chiu. 2013. History of Chinese New Year. [ONLINE] Available at:http://chineseculture.about.com/od/chinesefestivals/a/ChineseNewYear.htm. [Accessed 03 June 13].

Education2. Unknown. Taboos and Superstitions of Chinese New Year. [ONLINE] Available at:http://education2.uvic.ca/Faculty/mroth/438/china/taboos.html. [Accessed 03 June 13].

Education2. Unknown. Chinese New Year. [ONLINE] Available at:http://education2.uvic.ca/Faculty/mroth/438/china/chinese_new_year.html. [Accessed 03 June 13].

HanBan. 2013. Chinese New Year Taboos and Customs. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.hanban.com/chinese-culture/chinese-taboo/chinese-new-year-taboos-customs.html. [Accessed 03 June 13].

- Adriana