Family and fortune rule New Year

The Chinese lunar date marks a time for appreciating others, eating good food, settling accounts and scaring away bad luck. Get in on the fun!

The Chinese New Year begins between late January and mid-February on a date determined by using the traditional lunar calendar. In 2015, it falls on Feb 19, and marks the beginning of the Year of the Sheep.

Chinese Lunar New Year, also called Spring Festival, has a history of more than 4,000 years and is the year's most important festival for Chinese people. The New Year's Eve dinner is called the reunion dinner, when the whole family sits at a round table and spends time together. Those who celebrate Christmas Day will get the significance of the family meal on these occasions.

In Chinese tradition, each lunar year is named after one of 12 animals. These are (in order): Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The cycle lasts for 12 years and then begins again.

In Chinese folk culture, Spring Festival is also called guonian (meaning passing a year), and has many other legends attached to it. It is said that the nian (year) was a strong monster that was fierce and cruel and ate one kind of animal each day, including humans. People had to hide on the evening when the nian came out. Later, people discovered that nian was very scared of fireworks and the color red. After that, they could drive the monster away using firecrackers and other fireworks, along with anything red.

To this day, setting off fireworks remains an important tradition, and red is a prominent color at Chinese New Year.

Preparations for the most important festival in China begin a week before the lunar New Year holidays. In Chinese, "dust" sounds the same as the word "old" (chen), so it is believed that the house must be thoroughly cleaned to drive away bad luck. People usually do this on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, and they also get rid of old things to prepare for a fresh start in the New Year.

After cleaning, people will go shopping and buy new clothes for the festival, especially red clothes. Purchasing new items symbolizes welcoming new things and getting ready for a new year, and of course red is an auspicious color in Chinese tradition.

On New Year's Eve, Chinese people will put up red scrolls around their doors, and display red paper-cuttings as window decorations. Scrolls are decorated with characters and sayings to bring happiness and good fortune like the Chinese character fu, which means blessing and happiness.

Everyone agrees that New Year is a time to spend with family and eat, drink and be merry, but not all culinary traditions are exactly the same. In southern China, people indulge in hotpot or sticky rice cakes, while in most parts of northern China people eat dumplings (jiaozi). Dumplings are the same shape as gold ingots, a kind of ancient Chinese money, so it is believed that eating dumplings will bring more wealth for the coming year. Cold and hot dishes also are served, and this will include fish dishes. In Chinese, fish (鱼 yú) sounds like "surplus" (余 yú), so eating fish is believed to bring a surplus of money and good luck in the coming year.

Red envelopes with money inside are given to children and unmarried adults by married adults and the elderly. This "lucky money" is usually given after the reunion dinner. According to tradition, people will live safe and sound for the whole year if they get lucky money. In most companies, especially those located in southern China, the bosses also give employees red envelopes to thank them for their hard work in the past year and inspire them to do even better in the next.

On New Year's Day, people usually set off more firecrackers in the morning (before opening the door) and early evening (before dinner), hoping to cast away any bad luck and bring forth good luck.

Over the next few days the most important thing to do is pay New Year visits to friends and relatives, usually wearing new clothes and always bearing gifts. Children greet the seniors, while seniors give the children lucky money. Because it is impolite to visit someone without a gift, special local products, fruits, desserts, wines and other small gifts should be taken when you visit others.

For companies, Spring Festival is a good time to visit clients and business partners to maintain strong relationships. Most companies send greeting cards and small gifts, and for extra important clients and business partners the boss may even visit in person.

Spring Festival spans a 15-day period, ending with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month. On this day, rice balls (yuanxiao or tangyuan) are a popular treat. Their round shape symbolizes union, harmony and happiness.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, family members gather together to eat the delicious rice balls and enjoy the full moon and the colorful festive lanterns.

There are many taboos during the New Year period, which spell bad luck for the coming year if broken. Many bad words related to "death", "bad", "broken", "killing", "ghost" and "illness" or "sickness" are forbidden during conversations. In some places, they consider it unlucky if the barrel of rice is empty, because they think they will have nothing to eat all year. Taking medicine is forbidden, too, otherwise people will be sick for the whole year.

All debts should be cleared and you should not ask to borrow money during Spring Festival.

This article is based on a lesson provided by the Business Confucius Institute at the University of Leeds. To find out more, go to http://lubswww.leeds.ac.uk/confucius/home/

(China Daily Africa Weekly 02/13/2015 page27)