Chinese New Year Customs in Different Countries

The Spring Festival is our country's long history of traditional festivals, is the most important days of the year, every New Year, no matter where the traveler is, how much money on the body, how far the road is to go home to celebrate the New Year. The Spring Festival is a traditional festival in our country, every nation will be over.

Influenced by Chinese culture, Southeast Asian countries belonging to the Chinese character cultural circle have the custom of celebrating the Spring Festival, such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and so on. Although these countries are directly influenced by Chinese culture, many things are incorporated into their own national characteristics.

One, Japan

Japan's learning from China began in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and has not been broken since. Before the Meiji Restoration, the Spring Festival in Japan was celebrated on the same day as in China, and the customs were similar. But after the Meiji Restoration, Japan gradually West China, from the worship of learning China to learn Western countries. The Emperor Meiji abolished the Chinese New Year and the lunar calendar in favor of the Western solar calendar.

But although Japan no longer celebrates the Lunar New Year, December 31st is designated as the "Day of Great Obscurity", and the night is called "New Year's Eve". New Year's Eve, the Japanese people to get together in front of the TV to watch the Japanese "Spring Festival Gala" - red and white songs. At midnight, all temples in Japan ring 108 bells, and the ringing of the bells signals the arrival of the New Year. The next morning, family members tell each other about the dreams they had on New Year's Eve, then relatives and friends pay their respects to each other, and elders give children New Year's money.

Two: Korea

Korea was once a vassal state of China, so it learned and imitated a lot from China. Around 1,000 years ago, during the Silla era, Koreans started celebrating Chinese New Year. It was banned when Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula, reappeared in 1985 as "Folklore Day," and was officially reinstated in 1999 as the "Old Main" festival.

The Spring Festival in Korea is different from that in China in many ways: the Chinese attach more importance to the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, while the Koreans attach more importance to the first day of the Lunar New Year; the Chinese use the color red in red envelopes, which represents celebration, while the Koreans use the color white, which represents purity. South Korea's Spring Festival and China have a little bit in common may be many people would not think that is the Spring Festival, every year the Spring Festival in South Korea will also be traffic congestion, hard to find a ticket.

Three, Singapore

Singapore's Chinese account for about three-quarters of the country's total population, so the Chinese New Year is also very much valued in Singapore. Every year, the Spring Festival in Singapore is a city of lights, drums and gongs, the Chinese put up Spring Festival couplets, sticking the word of good fortune, a strong flavor of the New Year.

Since most of the Chinese in Singapore are immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong, the Chinese New Year customs in Singapore are also very close to those in Guangdong, China. For example, two mandarin oranges will be brought to the Chinese New Year, because in Cantonese, "mandarin" and "jin" are the same sound, and "tangerine" and "ji" are the same sound, so mandarin oranges represent "jin", "ji" and "ji". The two mandarin oranges represent good fortune and good luck.

Four, Vietnam

Vietnam, known as Annam, in ancient times, had a long time as China's vassal state or directly under the territory, and therefore is the highest degree of Sinicization of the Central and Southern Peninsula countries, its cultural practices and China is very similar. Like China, Vietnam has festivals such as Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Lunar New Year.

To this day, Vietnam is still a predominantly agricultural country, so the Vietnamese Lunar New Year still maintains a lot of natural reverence. For example, Vietnamese people buy a live carp when worshipping the Goddess of the Sea, and when the statue of the Goddess of the Sea is burned, they put the carp back into the river, which is done because the carp is believed to be the embodiment of the dragon. Vietnam's Spring Festival is also a feature of the dumplings, but their shape is square, from the traditional Chinese culture, "the circle of heaven and earth" meaning, and the size of a lot bigger than China's, the largest two or three pounds.