Festive China: Spring Festival
THE first day of the first lunar month is Spring Festival, the beginning of a new year for China. Spring Festival is China's biggest extravaganza and a day for family reunion. Being around family members at the turn of the years is a vital ritual for the Chinese people.
Many of those living away from their hometowns return home during Spring Festival, which gives rise to what's called "the largest annual human migration in the world", also know as the "Spring Festival travel rush".
The Spring Festival celebration is a continuous process, starting from the 23rd or 24th of the 12th Lunar month. People often worship the Kitchen God, clean their houses, do their shopping, and put up Spring Festival couplets (blessing words posted on door frames) until New Year's Eve on the lunar calendar.
In addition to staying up late on New Year's Eve, having a New Year's Eve dinner and watching the Spring Festival Gala are two important customs of Spring Festival. New Year's Eve dinner are manifested in different ways in different parts of China.
Those in South China must have a dish of fish, because 'fish' in Chinese sounds similar to the character for "prosperity", symbolising an abundant and comfortable life.
Those in North China often eat dumplings, which symbolise "reunion" and "fortune".
The Spring Festival Gala is a variety TV program broadcast annually to celebrate the lunar New Year.
The gala attracts the largest audience of any entertainment show in the world, and runs for more than 4 hours, making it the longest TV show in the world. It is often hailed as a cultural feast for Chinese people on New Year's Eve. There is also a custom of giving and receiving red envelopes, or hongbao.
Traditionally adults placed money into red envelopes and gave them to children to wish them peace and good luck in the coming year. Nowadays, with the popularisation of mobile payment in China, it's a trend to send red envelopes digitally. The Internet can deliver New Year's wishes to each and every loved one, even if they are thousands miles away. The joyous atmosphere of Chinese New Year will linger until the first full moon of the first lunar month. Then the Lantern Festival is celebrated, which is bound to be another busy day. (China Daily).