The Spring Festival, the New Year, or the Lunar New Year is one of the traditional festivals in china that was celebrated every first day of the first lunar month according to the Chinese calendar for more than 4000 years.
The Spring Festival is a perfect occasion for the reunion of the families, bringing the blessings to the Chinese homes, and getting rid of the coming year’s diseases and bad luck. The Chinese prefer to eat the traditional food in this occasion; especially the kinds of food that they believe that they bring the good luck. For example, at the seventh day of the festival, most of their families eat the tossed fish salad; while the first day is the day of New Year’s cake, the prosperity cake, and mandarin orange.
The activities of the celebration lasts for about two weeks and begins at the New Year’s Eve, when the Chinese families have the reunion dinner together; then, the ladies clean their houses to avoid the new year’s diseases. Most of the Chinese people stay awake all the night with their lights and give the best wishes to one another as a traditional custom in this eve. At the morning, the fireworks accompanied with dragon and lion dances occupy the streets for a few days to please the children and adults.
The Chinese use great symbolic items inspired by ancient legends during their festivals, such as the two associated flowers to stand for courage and hope, the water narcissus to bring the good luck and fortune. In addition, they believe that there is a monster called Nian, who appears at the spring festival night every year and that this monster is afraid of lights and red colors; so, they hang up the spring festival couplets and the reversed Chinese character along with the flags to dismiss this monster and live a peaceful life.
