03/02/2022
Happy Chinese New Year!
2022 is here officially - the year of the TIGER. More specifically, WATER TIGER. Each animal year in the Gregorian Calendar is associated with one of five elements — wood, fire, earth, metal, or water. So more precisely, 2022 is the year of the water tiger.
The tradition of the Chinese New Year dates back as far as 4000 years. In the past century, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, and 2010 were all Tiger years.
The most famous legend on the origin of Chinese New Year is about the monster “NIAN”. In Chinese, “XIAN NIAN KUAI LE” or “XIAN NIAN HAO” is how they greet one another. The legend has it that the monster Nian comes out of the forest every New Year’s Eve to feast on animals and humans. But the people escaped every time. And they learned that monster Nian is afraid of the color red and loud noises. After that, the people would wear red clothes, put red papers up around their houses, red lanterns, and set up firecrackers to scare away NIAN. These traditions have then continued through this day.
It's more popular in China to call the Chinese New Year “Spring Festival”. It’s the time for family reunions. People always go home every year no matter how far they stay. They are able to observe their tradition by the books because their celebrations usually last for 15 days, though the public holiday is only 7 days beginning on new year’s eve. And actual celebrations often start the weekend before because there is so much to do! Things like:
Shopping for clothes, food, goodies, gifts, paper decorations, incense
Cleaning the house and putting red and gold decorations
Cleaning themselves like going for a haircut
Steaming the cakes
And many more ...
Come new years eve will become more busy with the annual family dinner, giving of red packets, lighting the fireworks and firecrackers at midnight to drive away the evil spirits and welcome the new year.
Beginning new years eve there are things they strictly follow like:
no more cleaning the house, doing the laundry, sweeping the floor, and taking out the garbage so as not to drive away fortune. It is considered bad luck, sweeping all your fortunes away!
Day 1: visit the husband family
Day 2: visit the wife family
Day 3: families stay at home or visit shrines, temples
Day 4: waiting for the arrival of the gods into their houses so they prepare food offerings and burn incense
Day 5: Garbage Day - keeping all the rubbish of the first four days means poor energy so they dumped all garbage this day and clean the house.
Day 6: Everyone's Birthday - ancient Chinese believe that on the 7th day at the beginning of time humans were created so they call it people’s day
Day 7: go back to work for those who are in the essential industries. Between here and the last day, most people are still on holiday and enjoying more festivities, visiting relatives and friends always bringing gifts with them all the time.
The last day of the celebrations for this year will be on February 15 which they call the Lantern Festival. Parades, dances, games, and fireworks mark the finale of the holiday.
More than just the beginning of a new calendar year, the Lunar New Year is seen as a time of reunion and rebirth, marking the end of winter and the start of spring. That is why the Chinese new year is aptly called the Spring Festival.
Again, Happy Chinese New Year! Safety and Health for the Whole Family🙏🙏🙏
