Learn the important facts about the biggest Chinese festival

History

If legends are to be believed the Chinese new year is celebrated to scare off the monster ‘Nian’.  He was a ferocious monster who used to scare the villagers on the first day of the year, according to the lunar calendar. People then decided to scare him away by using drum rolls, firecrackers, loud noises, and the color red. All these are now a major part of the celebrations.  

Another reason for celebrating this day is to mark the end of the coldest days and the beginning of the spring season. People can now start harvesting and pray for a healthy and fruitful harvest. Chinese people look forward towards the start of spring on the 15th of this new year. It is a 2 week-long celebration and ends with the Yuan Xiao Festival. 

Yuan Xiao festival is also known as the lantern festival and marks the end of the winter solace.

Rituals

Chinese people are very specific about the rituals and traditions that they have to follow. The Chinese new year is one of the biggest celebrations and there are many rituals attached to it. People tend to clean the house before the new year and during the tenure of 15 days, there is no cleaning of the house i.e no garbage is thrown out and there is no showering and many other things like this.

People get ready into their traditional attire which is basically of red colour as the colours play a very major role in their celebrations. If you read the history of it you would be knowing how important the red colour was for them. People tend to eat dumplings during the day, however, in the ancient time people only used to survive on it but with the modernization, people eat it once in a day, because it gets boring to eat the same thing thrice a day.

 All the restaurants and eateries would be serving you traditional dishes and you can rejoice this festival of light and joy with any local or you can just gather up with other Travellers to explore different areas. During this festival, there are many Dragon dances and other forms of traditional dancing on the streets and everyone gathers up for their family dinner. This festival also observes the biggest homecoming as it is an important and vital part to join your family for the traditional new year dinner.

Superstitions

Just like any other country or any other religion, there are many superstitions that Chinese people follow some of them are as follows:

• You will not see any locals visiting the hospital or taking medicine during these 15 days because they believe that visiting a hospital or taking medicine will invite bad health and may cause health issues.
• They will not lend or borrow money during this tenure as it is believed that it will promote Dept in your near future and even cause your family to live in loans for a certain period of time.
• Crying children are also believed to bring bad luck to your family.
• Shaving is not allowed on new year's day as it will wash away the good luck.
• One cannot sleep or throw out the garbage before 5th day because it means you are throwing away you are good luck or any positive energy of your house into the outer world and inviting the negativities.
• A day before the spring festival is completely dedicated to the cleaning on this day it is believed that you will sweep away the bad luck and there will be a room for good luck to come in. Hence, all the cleaning work is done on this day.
• You cannot cut your hair or use scissors, knives or any other sharp objects. Also, swearing arguing, saying unlucky words or breaking things everything is prohibited before the New year.

Food

According to the folklores, you have to eat dumplings for every meal every day but with the modernization, people got bored of this tradition and have made a few tweaks according to them. For example, people can now have the dumplings either on New years eve dinner or in their breakfast. Dumplings are not popular everywhere in China hence, this ritual is performed differently in different areas. For example few people would eat spring roll or tangyuan.

The Chinese desert also has special meanings to it. For example different cakes have a different name and symbolises different aspects of life. For example Tangyuan means soup balls which means reunion. Nian gao symbolises success and Fa gao means getting rich and in the same way, much different food symbolises different aspects. 

Chinese people are very much into drinking and have wine for each and every important celebration

Clothing

Chinese people love red. In China, both black and white colours are associated with sadness, grief and mourning. Hence, these are the colours to be avoided on the Chinese new year.

Red is the most favourite colour and is associated with this festival hence, people believe that red colour or any other bright colours would bring good fortune to them if worn in this festival.

Another interesting fact about the Chinese new year is that your zodiac animal changes according to the lunar calendar and people believe that they grow 1 year old on this day. Hence, Chinese new year is celebrated all around the globe and is the biggest festival that you would observe and in the entire year. Hence if you are on the China vacation packages and at around this time then you would experience a gala of a different kind of Dances, arts, colourful dresses and many other things. You can learn about the culture and the importance of this festival via locals while you travel around the country to have a leisure staycation