The Chinese New Year Festival
Celebrate the Year of the Pig with family feasts, food and lanterns
China and Chinatowns are getting ready for 15 dayws of New Year's festivities, both private and public.
Soon China and Chinatowns all over the world will explode in a colorful celebration of the new Chinese New Year. It starts on the day of the first New Moon of the year, that is 18 February 2007, and ends 15 days later, on the day of the next Full Moon. And according to the Chinese Zodiac, this year is (again) the Year of the Pig (or Boar), a special year for those who were born in 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, and of course 2007.
The Festival is for the most part a household affair. Religious ceremonies honor Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and deceased family members. The house is thoroughly cleaned, and in China, the windows and doors are freshly painted, often in red. It is decorated with paper cut outs, banners with lucky words, and lanterns. Most of the 15 days are spent visiting family.
The most important ritual is the sacrifice to the ancestors. The Chinese attach tremendous importance to family and family unity. They feel great respect for their deceased, whom they believe to be present at certain times during the year, for instance, during the Ghost Month) and over the New Year.
In most cultures, welcoming and honoring one’s guests (alive or dead), is best done with good food. On New Year’s Eve, the Chinese hold a veritable banquet with their extended family. This communal feast involving present and past generations is called “weilu,” which means “surrounding the stove”. The meal is a rich one and contains all kinds of symbolic foods, often because their names. Thus dumplings boiled in water are essential, because the word for them, “jiaozi”, literally means “sleep together and have sons”. In Cantonese, the word for lettuce sounds like “rising luck and fortune,” so some dishes come wrapped in lettuce. According to the same logic, tangerines and oranges signify luck and wealth, and fish (“Yu”) good wishes and abundance. The fish is served whole at the end of meal. Popular are Chinese New Year Cakes, which are sweet, round, layered, and steamed.
Most outsiders experience the Chinese New Year in its more public aspect: fireworks, for which the Chinese are famous, and colorful decorations in the streets. The most popular public celebration is the Lantern Festival, which comes at the close of the festivities, on the evening of the 15th day. There are lantern displays, often with a dragon theme, folk dances and parades with children carrying lit lanterns.
Chinese New Year dates:
- 2007: 18 February
- 2008: 7 February
- 2009: 26 January
- 2010: 14 February
Related articles:
- The Chinese Zodiac
- Chinese New Year in Sydney
- Chinese New Year Superstitions on What to Eat
- What your Chinese Animal Sign says about your personality and future? (coming soon)
Other New Years:
- Jewish New Year (also a lunar calendar)
