Celebrating Chinese New Year
(ancient traditional Chinese love story)
Long ago, there was a boy, clever, diligent and honest. Orphaned at an early age, he was very poor. However, he adopted an abandoned old buffalo, which proved to be very loyal and relieved him a lot from the hard labour in the fields. The two enjoyed a very good relationship, being seen together all the time. Villagers from far and near came to know him by the name of the Cowherd.
At the same time, the youngest of the seven celestial princesses had grown tired of the privileged but secluded life in the heavenly palace. She longed for a mundane life she often saw down beneath her. That was a very perverse idea to cherish in heaven. Yet, determined to pursue what she deemed to be her own happiness, she sneaked out and descended onto the earth and to the sudden happiness of the Cowherd with whom she had secretly fallen in love all along in heaven.
They married and had a lovely boy and a girl. While the Cowherd worked in the fields with his old pal the buffalo, the heavenly princess weaved at home to help support the family. Villagers all admired her excellent weaving skill and started learning from her. She was now wellknown as the Weaving Girl.
The family lived moderately but peacefully and happily until the girl’s celestial royal family found her missing and traced her to the village. By the way, it is popularly believed that a day in heaven accounts for years on the earth. The years she had spent with the Cowherd was but a day or so by the celestial calendar.
The Celestial Empress was in such a wrath that she gave her daughter only two choices: to go back home or see her husband and children destroyed. She had no choice but to leave.
The old buffalo suddenly began to speak to the bereaved and now astonished young man, saying that he was dying in no time and asking him to use his hide as a vehicle to catch up with his wife. And off he sailed to heaven taking his young son and daughter in two baskets carried by a shoulder pole.
Fearing that the young man would catch up, the empress took out her hair spin and drew a big river across the sky, known to the Chinese as the Silvery River (the Milky Way in the West). She wanted to separate the family forever.
However, all the magpies in the world, deeply touched by the story, came to their rescue. Each year, on the seventh day of the seventh month, they would flock together to form a bridge so that the family may enjoy a brief reunion.
The Lunar New Year’s Day
(A Chinese spring festival poem, known as the ancient poem)
In crackers’ cracking noise the old year passed away; The vernal breeze brings us warm wine and warm spring day.
On a thousand doors the sun sheds brilliant light, behold!
New couplets hang on the doors to replace the old. Wang Anshi (AD 1021 – 1086)
(Song Dynasty)
Translated by Xu Yuanchong
In A Quiet Night
Before my bed shine bright the silver beams, It seems the autumn frost on the ground so gleams. I gaze upwards towards the moon in the skies,
And downwards look when a nostalgia does arise. Li Bang (AD 701 – 762)
(Tang Dynasty)
On the Stork Tower
The sun beyond the mountain glows, The Yellow River seawards flows.
You can enjoy a grander sight By climbing to a greater height. Wang Zhihuan (AD 688 – 742) (Tang Dynasty)
Translated by Xu Yuanchong
The first poem reproduced here is a very old one which tells about the Spring Festival celebrated annually at the time of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It is called “The Ancient Poem”, but is titled “The Lunar New Year’s Day” and written by Chinese poet Wang Anshi (AD 1021 – 1086) during the Song Dynasty. What the poem describes – crackers cracking noise, warm wine, spring day, new couplets on thousands of doors, all relate to customs and conditions of the traditional Spring Festival.
This year, 2022, Chinese Lunar New Year Day is February 1, and the period of the Festival which celebrates it starts from January 31, lasting for 16 days and ending with the Lantern Festival on February 15. The short story and poems printed here are meant to mark this occasion.
2022 is the Year of the Tiger. Each new year is dedicated to a different animal, chosen from 12; how these animals were chosen arises from a mythical tale. The celebrations have origins in ancient China and many of the customs observed today arise from legends which explain how these practises came into being. Foremost among them is the old traditional story of the Nian (year).
The Legend of the Nian
A long time ago there was a quiet village where people lived a happy life and all through the year went about their business contentedly, and at the end of the year they went about preparing for the new year. But this was all to change on the eve of the New Year when they all closed their doors in fear and waited for the terror that was to come.
In the mountains there lived a terrible monster known as Nian, who slept all through the year, but would wake up at the end of it looking for food. The Nian was a fearful beast that looked like a lion, but with large horns and cruel sharp teeth. On New Year’s Eve night it would descend on the village devouring animals, chickens, cattle, and everything in sight; sometimes even children would disappear.
One night before the change of the year an old beggar appeared in the village asking for anyone who would help him with a place to sleep for the night. But he found all the doors locked and no one would answer for fear of the expected monster. Eventually, an old lady opened her door, gave him food and explained why everyone was locked in and not answering. The old man persuaded her to allow him a place to sleep, promising that he would reward her by getting rid of the Nian. Reluctantly, she let him in.
At midnight the beast came down from the mountain and saw one light shining from one household. He advanced, only to find the home lit up and red paper and red lanterns hanging all over the front of the house. Nian trembled, and with loud roars and snarls charged at the door. It suddenly opened and there were loud noises from firecracker sounds. Then out of the screen of smoke came the old man walking towards Nian, dressed in red, beating on a drum and making loud noises. This terrified the shocked monster who turned and fled from the village with frightened squeals.
Next morning the villagers woke up and surprisingly found no trace of Nian’s visit and everything quiet and in order. The old lady called them together and showed them what the old beggar had placed around her house and told them what he had done. So they all decided the next year to put up red paper, lighted lanterns, and red decorations all over their front doors and sound off firecrackers made from bamboo, and make joyful noises at New Year. Nian became terribly afraid of the colour red, fire and noises and never returned to the village.
That is a traditional myth of origin or creation and this version of it was supplied by Adam Kuo Li of the University of Guyana’s Confucius Institute. It explains many of the customs observed by Chinese people every New Year.
These celebrations mark the largest national festival in China. There is a public holiday which lasts for seven days, starting on New Year’s Eve – in 2022 it is January 31 to February 6. The festival period continues until February 15 when there is another celebration of the Lantern Festival marked by the launching of multitudes of red Chinese lanterns to end the New Year period.
It is a traditional festival, as well as a cultural one; the most popular festival in China, and a commercial one. It is preceded by Christmas, which is perhaps the most intense commercial festival in China.
The New Year Spring Festival is celebrated with visits to family, feasts and dinners, the giving of gifts, the wearing of new clothes, the repair of houses, decoration of houses and buildings with the dominant colour red, lanterns hung on walls, and the noises of firecrackers. Newness and rebirth are prevailing themes as the housecleaning includes the discarding of old things.
These poems and stories are also presented in commemoration of the continued Chinese presence in Guyana, since Chinese Arrival Day was observed on January 12, the day the first Chinese immigrants landed in British Guiana in 1853. Two hundred and sixty-nine men arrived on the ship Glentanner, and were placed at Windsor Forest and other plantations. Five days later on January 17, the Lord Elgin landed with 85 indentured workers. Between 1853 and 1879, 13,541 Chinese were imported under the indentureship scheme.