Spring Festival is the most important and longest holiday in China. Chinese will begin celebrating on the New Year's Eve and the celebrations will last for 15 days.

The Origin

Spring Festival is the first day of the lunar calendar, so it is also called the Lunar New Year. And it is also referred to as the Spring Festival since it is the beginning of the Spring term, which is the first term of the 24 terms on the lunar canlendar.

It was recorded that Chinese started to celebrate Spring Festival from about 2000 BC, though the celebrations were held on different times under different emperors. They started to celebrate Spring Festival on the first day of the lunar calendar based on Emperor Wu Di's almanac of the Han Dynasty.

Legend says the celebrations of Spring Festival may be related to a beast known as Nian. The beast Nian came out to eat people on new years until an old man found a way to conquer it. Then people started to observe and celebrate Spring Festival. The word "Nian" now has the same meaning as Spring Festival, which is used as commonly as Spring Festival. And people often use the term "Guo Nian", which may originally mean "passed or survived the Nian". Now everyone loves Guo Nian.

The Year of the Ram

The lunar calendar is represented by twelve animals. Each year is represented by one animal. This year is the year of the ram. The 12 animals in order are: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Chinese zodiac is also based on the 12 animals.

Things Chinese Do

Here is a list of things or traditions Chinese may do around Spring Festival.

1. Preparation
Usually the preparation starts a month before the new year. The preparation includes thoroughly cleaning and decorating the house, buying new clothes, preparing enough food for at least two weeks. The decorations are highly symbolic with a lot of lucky words, printed paintings and red colors everywhere. Kids are busy in shopping for different kinds of firecrackers. Everyone gets a haircut before the new year. So everything and everyone looks new and fresh on the new year.

2. New Year' Eve
The New Year's Eve is the time for families. The New Year Eve's dinner is the biggest dinner of the year, much like Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner is full of symbolic meaning, such as Chinese dumplings implying wealth since they have the shape of ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots. Everyone, even kids, drinks a little Jiu (usually hard liquor), which symbolizes longevity since Jiu has the same pronunciation as longevity in Chinese. Then the family chats while watching national TV shows or listening to radio together until the coming of the new year. In China, the national TV shows have been prepared for a few months by a group of famous entertainers.

3. Firecrackers
Firecrackers are set off as soon as the new year arrives. You can hear or see firecrackers everywhere and this usually lasts for a few hours. Some people will continue to play firecrackers occasionally through out the first half of the first month. Traditionally fireworks are the sign of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new. Fireworks are now banned in China, so this tradition is history.

4. Red Packets
Giving Hongbao or red packets during Spring Festival is another tradition. A Red packet is simply a red envelope with money in it, which symbolizes luck and wealth. Red packets are typically handed out to younger generation by their parents, grand parents, relatives, and even close neighbors and friends.

5. New Year Greetings
Spring Festival is also the time for socializing. People usually wear new clothes and go out to visit and greet their relatives and friends, so the streets are filled with a lot of cheerful people. The greetings and visitings can go on for a few days.

6. Dragon and Lion Dancing
Dragon and Lion dancing is another tradition of Spring Festival.

7. Lantern Festival
Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Festival is on the 15th of the first month of Spring Festival, which marks the end of the New Year celebrations. Chinese celebrate the first full moon of the year on this day. It is the time for family reunion again. Yuanxiao is also a kind of cake, which looks like a table tennis ball (a little smaller) made of sticky rice with sweet stuffing inside. Everyone eats a few on Lantern Festival, which symbolizes family will stick together.