Spring Festival—China
The Spring Festival is the most important seasonal festival in China, marking the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one. Among the most joyous and colorful Chinese seasonal festivals, it is also the longest, extending from the sixteenth day of the twelfth month to the fifteen day of the first month, affecting every aspect of life in society. On New Year's Eve, entire families are expected to gather together for an evening meal; the event is comparable in significance to the family meals held on Christmas Eve in the West.
The premodern (pre–twentieth century) Chinese calendar year followed the lunar year, and the Spring Festival was connected with this calendar. The Nationalist revolution in 1912 and the Communist revolution in 1949 not only brought about fundamental changes in political institutions, but also introduced the Western calendar as a way to "modernize" China. The official New Year's Day was moved to 1 January, and the Lunar New Year was renamed the "Spring Festival."
Businesses large and small celebrate this occasion with a year-end banquet. Bonuses of cash in red envelopes are given to employees so that they can travel home for the holiday. In China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, the new lunar year also signals the beginning of the monthlong Lunar New Year holiday. Most businesses close or curtail operations throughout the festival. The twenty-fourth day of the twelfth month marks the second major ritual that involves individual families. This is the day when each family sends its residential kitchen god back to heaven; it is customary for the family to prepare sweet foods or foods made from glutinous rice as sacrifices to the kitchen god.
On New Year's Eve, all family members gather for the evening meal. By lighting incense before the meal, the head of the family symbolically invites the departed ancestors and deities to join the occasion. After the meal, children pay their respects to their parents by bowing (in China) or kowtowing (in Taiwan and Hong Kong) to them. In return, parents give their children money in red envelopes. On New Year's Day, people wearing new clothes visit their kin, friends, and neighbors. The celebration lasts until the fifteenth day of the first month, the Lantern Festival, after which all businesses resume normal operations and employees return to work.
Further Reading
Bodde, Derk. (1975) Festivals in Classical China: New Year and Other Annual Observances during the Han Dynasty, 206 B.D.–A.D. 220. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Eberhard, Wolfram. (1958) Chinese Festivals. New York: Abelard-Schuman.
This is the complete article, containing 418 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
