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Happy New Year! This greeting has a special meaning when spoken in Chinese. Chinese New Year is celebrated globally, with massive gatherings in cities like San Francisco and London, where hundreds of thousands of people come together. However, for many of us, this holiday is often reduced to Chinese food, fireworks, and lively parades. Let us guide you through this cultural celebration and teach you more about the significance of the Lunar New Year.
10. The Legend of Nian
New Year traditions are often filled with bright colors, lights, and noise—elements familiar in many celebrations. In the case of Chinese New Year, however, each of these has a particular significance, steeped in ancient legend.
Long ago, stories tell of a fearsome creature named Nian. This beast, described as having the head of a lion and the body of a bull, terrorized the people. Each winter, as food became scarce, Nian would raid villages, taking what it could find.
It was eventually discovered that Nian was afraid of three things: the color red, loud sounds, and fire. Armed with this knowledge, villagers decorated their homes with red, set fires in front of their doors, and made noise through the night. The plan succeeded—when Nian appeared, it fled back into the mountains in fear. The villagers celebrated, and though Nian never returned, the traditions have persisted to ensure it stays away.
9. Fireworks
Few things are as iconic to Chinese New Year as fireworks. Even in countries far removed from China, such as the UK, there are special provisions made to allow people to celebrate with explosions. China alone produces 90 percent of the world's fireworks, and they wouldn't dream of celebrating the Spring Festival without them. However, these brilliant bursts do come with a downside—in 2012, fireworks caused nearly 6,000 accidents on the very first day of celebrations.
A more urgent concern is air pollution. China's smog issues have made global headlines for breaking records in all the wrong ways, and millions of people setting off fireworks at once is the kind of thing that certainly doesn't help. If air pollution in Beijing reaches the orange or red level on the country's warning scale by the 31st of January, fireworks will be banned. Let’s hope they have a contingency plan in case this ban prompts Nian to make a return.
8. Superstitions
The Spring Festival celebrations are steeped in superstition. One of the most widely followed customs is thoroughly cleaning the house before the New Year begins, to sweep away all the previous year’s misfortune. However, cleaning on New Year’s Day itself is believed to wash away the good luck for the upcoming year. This also means no washing your hair. Using knives or scissors is seen as cutting away the luck. Talking about ghosts is forbidden, and since crying is considered unlucky, children spend the day without any punishment.
The foods enjoyed during the celebrations hold symbolic meanings. For instance, jiaozi dumplings, often stuffed with meat, are a favorite dish that symbolizes prosperity. These dumplings are frequently shaped like crescents, reflecting the crescent-shaped ingots once used as currency in ancient China. Whole chickens are served to symbolize family unity, while the round shape of sweet puddings stands for reunion.
Another customary dish is sticky rice cakes. According to legend, the Kitchen God observes families throughout the year. During the New Year celebrations, he reports to the Jade Emperor, the ruler of heaven. To prevent negative reports, families consume sticky cakes, which supposedly seal the Kitchen God's lips and ensure he shares a favorable account.
7. The Chinese Government
The Chinese government has a complicated relationship with the New Year. When the General Office of the State Council published the 2014 holiday schedule, they inadvertently left out Lunar New Year’s Eve. This omission was odd since it had been included in the calendar since 2007, as many employers had already given workers partial or full days off. By officially recognizing the day, the government regained a day of productivity.
The decision to remove New Year’s Eve from the official calendar was met with widespread disapproval. A survey of 169,000 people revealed that 82.7 percent of the Chinese population were dissatisfied with the change. Many took to the Internet to voice their displeasure. One particularly sarcastic user claimed he would visit eight different government bureaus on that day to ensure they were adhering to their own rules. Another blogger pointed out a law from 2013 that made it mandatory to visit elderly relatives, highlighting that the government's actions were making it harder to comply with this law.
Elsewhere, the Communist Party is leveraging the New Year to placate the public. Amid widespread corruption within the government, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has prohibited the use of public funds for gift-giving during the Spring Festival. Previously, officials would spend taxpayer money on everything from food to tobacco during the holidays, but now gifts will only be permitted if they are meant to offer support to government employees experiencing financial hardship.
6. Human Migration And Diapers
The Spring Festival travel period, known as Chunyun, marks the largest annual human migration in the world. Over 700 million people participate in nearly 3 billion journeys, combining road, rail, ferries, and air travel. The number of travelers continues to grow, with train demand expected to rise by 8 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year.
During the busy travel season, people often have to wait in long lines, sometimes outside for hours, just to get a train ticket. Scalpers are common, and some passengers attempt to sneak by with fake tickets, hoping the exhausted rail staff won’t notice. With trains often packed to double their usual capacity and many passengers traveling for over 24 hours, finding access to a restroom becomes a major issue. Supermarkets report a 50 percent increase in adult diaper sales during Chunyun. While it may sound unpleasant for those near diaper wearers, it's likely the lesser evil.
5. Gung Haggis Fat Choy
Around the same time the Chinese celebrate the Lunar New Year, the people of Scotland honor the poet Robert Burns with a traditional Burns supper. In Vancouver, Todd Wong, a fifth-generation Chinese-Canadian, noticed that haggis and fireworks had never been paired together, so he decided to combine Burns Night with the Spring Festival. This unique celebration became known as Gung Haggis Fat Choy. If you've ever wanted to see someone in a Chinese lion costume wearing a kilt while dancing to bagpipes, this event is for you.
The celebration also gained popularity in Seattle, as well as in Vancouver where Wong is based, and soon it became known worldwide. On the British TV show QI, host Stephen Fry dubbed it the 'Chinese Burns Night.' Wong even traveled to Scotland as part of a celebration of Scottish culture abroad, where he met national politicians while dressed in an elegant mix of Chinese silk and tartan.
4. Poultry Production And Flu
Chinese poultry production peaks in November and December as farmers prepare for the New Year feasts. This is a crucial period for chicken farmers. However, the increase in poultry numbers as 2013 came to a close brought an unexpected challenge—the reemergence of bird flu.
The troublesome strain of the disease was first detected in March 2013, prompting the closure of poultry markets for several months. Another outbreak occurred in October, and shortly after, a woman died after contracting the H7N9 strain. In Shanghai, officials announced that live poultry markets would be shut down for three months starting on New Year's Eve. Older residents, who are accustomed to buying live chickens to make soup for the Spring Festival, were unhappy about the change. However, this shutdown will last for the next five years, and they'll have to adjust to the new norm.
3. The Year Of The Wood Horse
According to the Chinese zodiac, the year starting January 31 is that of the horse. The celebrations in Singapore’s Chinatown are themed “Galloping to Prosperity” and golden horses are among the decorations lining the streets. Aside from giving organizers a chance to use puns, what does it mean?
Feng shui experts predict that the year will be a particularly good time for people to get married and have children. One of them recommends that mothers should “avoid giving birth between May and August if possible,” suggesting a worrying lack of understanding about that whole process. It’s a good year for those born in the years of the ox, the goat, and the dog. If you’re a rat, a tiger, or a monkey, though, you might not fare so well.
2. The Generation Gap
While the press has a lot to say about millennials, the generation gap in the West is nothing compared to that in China. Chinese people born since the 1980s have a very different view of the world than their parents, and at no time is this more pronounced than during the Spring Festival.
Some traditions are seen as fading among the younger generation, including visits to elderly relatives, family reunion dinners, and the giving of ang paos—red envelopes filled with money—to younger family members. Many in their twenties find little in common with older relatives and prefer to spend time with friends, who are generally a more significant part of their lives.
Chinese millennials are also delaying marriage and avoiding trips home to steer clear of questions about their personal lives. Many young adults in China choose to go on vacation during the New Year break, providing a significant boost to Asia’s tourism industry. Even those who do return home often do so mainly to collect their ang pao and spend the rest of the time chatting with friends online.
1. Nianhua
Nianhua, or New Year pictures, are traditional decorations often hung on doors during the Spring Festival. This custom, which dates back to the Song Dynasty over 800 years ago, is particularly popular in rural areas. The pictures are vibrant, depicting scenes of prosperity and good fortune. Common symbols include birds and various fruits, with one of the most iconic images being that of a chubby baby holding a large fish.
In the mid-20th century, the Communist Party redefined the Nianhua as a propaganda tool, maintaining the art style but altering its message. One “new Nianhua” illustration depicts the typically plump Chinese children, but instead of resting, they are shown engaged in activities like washing clothes, carpentry, sewing, and harvesting food. These images became the most common in households, not because they were beloved, but because the government prohibited the distribution of alternative images. As more freedoms emerged in the 1980s, traditional images surged back, and once again, the children were depicted with large fish.
