Characteristics of Chinese New Year

The festivals of the year are also called "traditional festivals". They have a long history, are widely spread, and are characterized by great popularity, mass, and even universal. New Year's Day is the day to get rid of the old and bring in the new. Although it is held on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the activities of the festival do not end on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar. From the 23rd (or 24th) of Lunar New Year's Day, people start to "busy": sweeping the house, washing the hair and bathing, preparing the New Year's Day utensils and so on.

New Year's Day is also a day of worship and prayer. Ancient people said that a ripe grain for a "year", the harvest for the "great year". In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there has been an annual celebration of the harvest. Later, praying to heaven became one of the main contents of the New Year's custom. Moreover, gods such as the God of the Stove, the God of the Door, the God of Wealth, the God of Happiness, the God of the Well, etc., all enjoyed the incense on earth during the New Year's festivals. People take this opportunity to thank the gods for their past care and pray for more blessings in the new year.

New Year's Day is also a time for family reunions and ancestor worship. New Year's Eve, the whole family gathered together to eat the "New Year's dinner", the elders to the children to distribute "New Year's money", the family sat down "to observe the New Year". At the time of the New Year's Eve, firecrackers went off, and the activities of saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new year reached a climax. Each family burns incense to pay homage to heaven and earth, sacrifices to the ancestors, and then pays New Year's greetings to their elders, followed by congratulations from relatives and friends of the same clan. After the first day of the year, began to visit friends and relatives, and exchange gifts to celebrate the New Year.

The New Year's Day is also a festival of popular entertainment and revelry. After the New Year's Day, a variety of colorful recreational activities competing: play lion, dragon dance, twisting rice-planting songs, stilt walkers, juggling plays, etc., for the New Year Festival has added a rich and festive atmosphere. At this time, just before and after the "spring", the ancient times to hold a grand ceremony to welcome the spring, whip the bull to welcome the spring, praying for wind and rain, a good harvest. Various social fire activities to the first month of the fifteenth, again forming a climax. Therefore, a set of prayers, celebrations, entertainment as one of the feast of the New Year Festival has become the most important festival of the Chinese people. To this day, in addition to the worship of gods and ancestors and other activities than the past has been diluted, the main customs of the New Year's Day, are intact to inherit and develop.

In summary, the festivals of the year are also called "traditional festivals". They have a long history, are widely spread, and are characterized by great popularity, mass, and even universal.