Chinese New Year has always been one of my favorite topics to discuss about. As a Vietnamese, this topic is even more interesting for me since we also have Lunar New Year for the first 3 days. For a couple of days, I have done some research about the history, the common customs and the myths about the Chinese New Year and it is amazing to figure out how the festival has started and evolved over time.
Before discussing about the customs and the myths, I want to give a thorough description of the history of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year (CNY for abbreviation), or Spring Festival (also “chunjie” in Chinese), has more than 4,000 years of history and is the longest holiday of the year. Its customs have undergone a long development process. At first, CNY was believed to be originated in the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), when sacrificial ceremonies were held in honor of gods and ancestors. Then under the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC), the Calendar ‘Year’ was established, the term Nian (‘year’) emerged and pagan or ancestor worship became social practice. After that, the CNY’s date, the 1st day of the first month in the Chinese lunar calendar, was fixed and celebration activities like burning bamboo to make noisy cracking sounds became trendy under the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). From 220-1911, during Wei-Qing Dynasty, more and more entertaining activities were prominent because of the citizens’ awareness of social entertainment. Due to the wealth of economies and cultures during this empire, the old-fashioned CNY was replaced with Hi-Tech celebrations, namely friend and relative visits, dragon and lion dances during the Temple Fair and lantern shows. The traditions of family gatherings to clean their house, have dinner together, and stay up late until the new year came also derived from this age. Finally, under Modern times (1980 – now), in 1912, the government decided to invalidate CNY and the lunar calendar, and instead, approved the Christian calendar (or Western calendar) and made January 1st the official start of the new year. Not until 1949 was the CNY renamed as the Spring Festival and eventually regarded as a national public holiday in China. Even though many conventional activities are evaporating, new trends like CCTV (China Central Television) Spring Festival Gala, WeChat red envelopes and overseas travel have been adopted (China Highlights, 2019).
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This new year holiday usually begins on the 1st of the Lunar Calendar and lasts until the 15th of the first month. The traditional Chinese calendar follows a Metonic cycle, a system used by the modern Jewish Calendar, and returns to the same date in the Western calendar. Therefore, there is no set date for CNY. Alongside the 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac, there is also a 10-year cycle of the heavenly stem. Each of the stems is associated with one of the five basic elements of Chinese astrology, which are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig in order. The selection and order of the animals that influence people’s lives very much derived from the Han Dynasty and are based on each animal’s character and living habits. This division was mostly related to the number 12: one ji equals to 12 years, one year has 12 months, one day has 12 time periods called shi Chen. Ancient people observe that there are also 12 full moons within a year, in other words, it is related to astrology. Each animal sign is frequently connected with an earthly branch, which makes the animal years be called Zi Rat, Chou Ox, Yin Tiger, Mao Rabbit, Chen Dragon, Si Snake, Wu Horse, Wei Sheep, Shen Monkey, You Rooster, Xu Dog, and Hai Pig (Travelchianguide.com, 2019)
In other regions that also celebrate The New Year Festival, it can also be called by many other names such as North and South Korea have Korean New Year, Vietnam has “Tết Nguyên Đán”, Tibet has Losar, Brunei has Tahun Baru, Hong Kong, Suriname and Macau has Lunar New Year, Indonesia has Sin Cia, Malaysia has Tahun Baru Cina, the Philippines has Bagon Taon ng mga Tsino/Intsik, Taiwan has Spring Festival, Singapore has Chinese New Year, and Thailand has Wan Trut Chin too. (En.wikipedia.org, 2019)
It was originally a ceremonial day to pray to the gods for a good planting and harvest season. In the past, when calculating time to plant and harvest, the farmers used the lunar calendar which traces the movement of the Moon. It is also a time to pray the Chinese ancestors, as they were treated as gods. Despite of the cold weather, the lunar new year marks the end of winter, and spring is welcomed with all the good things it brings along: new beginnings and fresh starts, planting and harvesting. In China, all departments are closed during the first five days of the Spring Festival. People must stock up on New Year supplies in advance. Kitchens will also show the first signs of Spring Festival dishes with the preparation of cured meat, salted fish and other preserved food. During the holidays, people around China will prepare a variety of gourmet for families and guests. As the diversity in the flourished cultures, cuisines from different places will taste and look entirely different. Among them, the most prominent ones are dumplings from Northern China and Tangyuan from Southern China. The evening preceding for CNY’s Day is usually considered as a reunited time for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner when they talk and discuss things that happened in this year and expect that new year would bring happiness, health and prosperity. It is also occasional for every family to carefully clean their houses, so as to sweep away any ill fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Brooms and dust pans are put away on the 1st day so that the newly good luck will not be swept away. Some people even paint their doors and apply new window frames with a red color. Another practice is the elaboration of windows and doors with red-paper cuts and couplets. The usual themes among these paper-cut and couplet designs should include good fortune or happiness, prosperity, and longevity. Besides, lighting firecrackers and giving money in red envelopes are also popular activities in the Lunar New Year. However, any haircuts will be regarded as bad lucks as the homonymic nature of the word “hair” (fa) and the word for prosperity, so it needs to be completed before the New Year. Businesses should also pay off all their debts before new year eve. On the 8th day of the first lunar month on new lunar year, the Laba Festival, a traditional porridge, is served in remembrance of an ancient festival (La) that follows right after the winter solstice. Pickles like Laba garlic, which turns green because of vinegar, are also made on this day. Laura, cured meats of CNY are prepared as sacrifices held in honor of the gods in the 12th lunar month. The porridge was prepared by the ladies of the house at first light, with the first bowl offered to the ancestors and the deities. Then every family member was served a bowl, with leftovers will be shared with relatives and friends. After supper, some families go to local temples before New Year Eve begins to pray for a prosperous new year by lighting the first incense of the year. In contrast, in modern time, some people hold parties and countdown to the new year. At some regions in China, it is still served as a traditional and special breakfast on this day. There are also some families who choose to eat vegetarian on CNY eve, the garlic and preserved meat are eaten on CNY day. (En.wikipedia.org, 2019)
Like all cultural festivals in China, CNY is filled with stories and myths. One of the most popular one is about the mythical beast Nian (“nyen”), who ate livestock, crops, and even people, especially children on the eve of a new year. To prevent it from attacking people and causing destruction, people put food at their doors for Nian. One year, all the villagers decided to hide from the beast when a wise old man showed up and said that he would get revenge on the Nian. Everyone thought he was insane when they saw him start to put red papers up and set off firecrackers. The day after, the civilians came back to their villages to find that everything was unchanged. As a result, they assumed that the man was a deity who came to save them. They found out that Nian was afraid of loud noises (firecrackers) and the color red. Since then, people started to wear red clothes, put red lanterns and red scrolls on windows and doors. From then on, they were never frightened by the Nian anymore. It is also said that the Nian was finally caught by Hongjun Laozi, an ancient Taoist monk and after that, it returned to a nearby mountain. The name of that mountain has long been forgotten over time (En.wikipedia.org, 2019).
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