Happy Chinese New Year ’11
Billions of people all over the world celebrate Chinese New Year, which started February 3rd. 2011 is the year of the Rabbit, which according to the Chinese is a lucky sign. The Rabbit brings a year in which you can catch your breath and calm your nerves. It is also a time for negotiation and relationships. This is not a time to be forceful, but rather focus on the home, family, diplomacy and relationships with women and children. You should make it your goal this year to create a safe, peaceful lifestyle, and to deal calmly with any problems that may arise.
People who are born in the year of the Rabbit are articulate, generous, and ambitious. They are virtuous, reserved, and have impeccable taste. Rabbit people are highly respected and often financially lucky. Though they are fond of gossip, they try their best to be tactful and are generally kindhearted, they seldom lose their temper. Clever at business and very conscientious, they never back out of a promise. If they gamble, they are usually successful, as they have a talent for choosing the right thing. They are conservative and wise, and are most compatible with Sheep, Pig, and Dog.
Chinese New Year starts on the 3rd and lasts for 15 days, and includes many festivities. On the days before the New Year celebrations, Chinese families clean their homes thoroughly. It is believed that cleaning sweeps away any bad luck the preceding year might bring, opening their home for good luck. On the first day of the new year brooms and cleaning supplies are put away, so that newly arrived luck cannot be swept away. People also give their homes, doors and window-frames new coats of red paint, which is considered to be a lucky color. Homes are decorated with paper cutouts of auspicious phrases and images, and people purchase new clothes, shoes, and get new hair cuts to symbolize a fresh start. Home altars and statues are cleaned thoroughly and decorations from the previous year are taken down and burned, being replaced with new decorations. Some people also burn paper effigies and money, hoping for good luck and wealth, and offer sweets.
On New Years Eve, families have a large dinner consisting of fish and other side dishes. People make dumplings or new year cake after dinner, having it at midnight and sending pieces as gifts to family and friends in the coming days. After dinner, families go to local temples to ask for a prosperous new year by lighting incense, they also hold parties. During this time, the sky will be bright with fireworks, as every family goes out and sets them off, which is supposed to scare away demons.
On the first day of the new year, many people abstain from meat consumption as it is believed that this will ensure longevity. Some consider lighting fires and using knives to be bad luck on New Year’s Day, so all food to be consumed is cooked the day before. People also abstain from killing animals. Most importantly, this is the time when families visit the oldest members of their extended families, such as their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents.
Some families invite lion dancers to usher in the new year and drive out bad spirits from the area. Married family members give red packets called ang pow containing money to younger unmarried members of the family, mostly kids and teenagers. Business managers also give bonuses through red packets to employees for luck and wealth.
The second day of the Chinese New Year is for married daughters to visit their birth parents. Traditionally, daughters who have been married may not have the opportunity to visit their birth families frequently. People are extra kind to dogs and will feed them well, as it is believed that this day is the birthday of all dogs.
The third day is known as chì kǒu, directly translated as “red mouth”. chì kǒu is also called chì gǒu rì. chì gǒu means “the God of Blazing Wrath”, it is generally accepted that it is not a good day to socialize or visit your relatives and friends.
In northern China, people eat jiǎo zi, or dumplings on the morning of Po Wu, the fifth day. This is also the birthday of the Chinese god of wealth. In Taiwan, businesses traditionally re-open on the next day accompanied by firecrackers. It is also common in China that on the 5th day people will shoot off firecrackers in the attempt to get Guan Yu’s attention, thus ensuring his favor and good fortune for the new year.
The seventh day, traditionally known as renri, the common man’s birthday, the day when everyone grows one year older. It is the day when tossed raw fish salad, yusheng, is eaten. This is a custom primarily among the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Singapore. People get together to toss the colourful salad and make wishes for continued wealth and prosperity. For many Chinese Buddhists, this is another day to avoid meat, the seventh day commemorating the birth of Sakra, lord of the devas in Buddhist cosmology who is analogous to the Jade Emperor.
Another family dinner to celebrate the eve of the birth of the Jade Emperor. However, everybody should be back to work by the 8th day. All of government agencies and business will stop celebrating by the eighth day.
The ninth day of the New Year is a day for Chinese to offer prayers to the Jade Emperor of Heaven in the Taoist Pantheon. The ninth day is traditionally the birthday of the Jade Emperor. This day is especially important to Hokkiens. Come midnight of the eighth day of the new year, Hokkiens will offer thanks giving prayers to the Emperor of Heaven. Offerings will include sugarcane as it was the sugarcane that had protected the Hokkiens from certain extermination generations ago. Incense, tea, fruit, vegetarian food or roast pig, and paper gold is served as a customary protocol for paying respect to an honored person.
On the 13th day people will eat pure vegetarian food to clean out their stomach due to consuming too much food over the last two weeks. This day is dedicated to the General Guan Yu, also known as the Chinese God of War. Guan Yu was born in the Han dynasty and is considered the greatest general in Chinese history. He represents loyalty, strength, truth, and justice. According to history, he was tricked by the enemy and was beheaded. Almost every organization and business in China will pray to Guan Yu on this day. Before his life ended, Guan Yu had won over one hundred battles and that is a goal that all businesses in China want to accomplish. In a way, people look at him as the God of Wealth or the God of Success.
The fifteenth day of the new year is celebrated as Yuan Xiao Festival/Yuánxiāojié or Shang Yuan Festival/Shàngyuánjié or Lantern Festival, otherwise known as Chap Goh Mei in Fujian dialect. Rice dumplings tangyuan, a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup, is eaten this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. This day is celebrated as the Lantern Festival, and families walk the street carrying lighted lanterns. This day marks the end of the Chinese New Year festivities.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Chinese New Year, and that your year will be full of happiness. Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Posted: Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 @ 4:43 am
Categories: cute.
Tags: chinese new year, cute bunny, cute chinese, cute chinese new year, cute rabbit chinese new year 2011, year of the rabbit.
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