Celebration

Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, is the most important traditional Chinese festival celebrated in China. The difference between Western New Year and Chinese New Year is that Chinese New Year follows the moon as the calendar, so the first day of the New Year always changes. On the other hand, Western New Year falls on the 1st of January every year.

Chinese New Year can be traced back to about 3500 years ago. Like all traditional festivals in China, the Chinese New Year has a story behind it too. A long time ago, tradition has it that there was a beast named Nian who ate people on New Year's Eve. So, people tried to prevent Nian from attacking them by putting food at their doors for Nian to eat. One time, Nian was trying to eat a little girl, luckily her family saw it and tried to scare Nian away by yelling at it. Because of the noise, people came to help to save the little girl by banging pans and pots, surprisingly it worked, and Nian was scared and ran away. After that, people figured out that Nian feared loud noises. As a result, firecrackers were then used to scare Nian away and now, people use firecrackers to celebrate Chinese New Year.

In addition, in the Wei to Qing Dynasty, Chinese New Year has changed from being religious to entertaining, with more festival activities. I remember having an abundance of food and doing fun activities when I was a child celebrating the Chinese New Year. My parents would put new bills in a red envelope under my pillow on the eve of Chinese New Year, because they believed it would bring good luck for the new year. In the morning of Chinese New Year, I would wear new clothes and wish my parents a wonderful year. Then they would give me a red envelope with money inside.

As a child, the most exciting part was gathering at my grandparents’ home with my cousins and collecting money and enjoying the delicious home cooked food. In the afternoon, most of the children went out to play with firecrackers and fireworks. Using fireworks to draw on the floor was my favorite thing to do. Sometimes lion dances showed up door to door, alley to alley, it was always fascinating to see. As years passed and with the development of technology, the way people celebrate Chinese New Year has changed. People send money electronically instead of using the traditional red envelopes. Families are gathering less and instead of playing outside, children are staying inside to watch TV and play video games. It is sad to see how this tradition is slowly fading away.

I loved my childhood memories of Chinese New Year. I hope I can show my children the spirit of Chinese New Year, so that we can create some special memories together.