[b]Have a happy Chinese New Year![/b] by [I]Claire Powell[/I] In the west, we celebrate New Year on the 31st December and 1st January. Resolutions are made – I will go to the gym twice a week, I will help my wife with the housework - and probably forgotten! Does that sound like you? Well, there is another chance, as Chinese New Year is celebrated on January 22nd. Why do the Chinese celebrate New Year at a different time? The traditional Chinese calendar, like many Asian calendars, follows the lunar cycle. So the New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and the celebrations end on the full moon fifteen days later. A month is a ‘Moon’ and the cycle lasts about twenty nine or thirty days. In order to catch up with the solar calendar, the Chinese insert an extra month once every seven years out of a nineteen year cycle. This is the same as adding an extra day for a leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year. The origins of the event are so ancient that they cannot be traced. However, the event is an exciting one, swathed in traditions and rituals. Preparations begin a month before the date of the Chinese New Year. People buy presents and clothes, decorate their homes and cook traditional food. Homes are cleaned from top to bottom, as any traces of dirt from the previous year could bring bad luck. Doors and windows are repainted, usually in red to ward off evil spirits, and then decorated with sayings to bring happiness, wealth and longevity. Fortune cookies are also baked, containing similar hopeful messages. Traditionally, each of the fifteen days has a special significance. The first day of the preparations welcomes the gods from the heavens and earth. Many people avoid eating meat on this day because they believe this will ensure a long and happy life. On the second day, the Chinese pray to their ancestors. They are also especially kind to dogs and feed them well, as this is believed to be the birthday of all dogs. The third and fourth days are for the sons-in-laws to pay respect to their parents-in-law. The fifth day is called Po Woo. On that day people stay home to welcome the God of Wealth. No one visits families or friends on the fifth day because it will bring bad luck. Visiting families and friends is resumed between the sixth and the tenth days, and people also visit temples to pray for good fortune and health. The seventh day is the day for farmers to present their produce. Farmers make a drink from seven types of vegetables to celebrate their work. The seventh day is also considered the birthday of human beings. Noodles and raw fish are eaten to promote long life and success. People typically have a family reunion dinner on the eighth day and on the ninth day they make offerings to the Jade Emperor. Jade comes in many shades of green and is thought to bring good luck. During the tenth and twelfth days, families invite friends and relatives for dinner. Probably more food is eaten then than at any other time in the year! Traditional food made at this time has special characteristics, all supposed to enhance the hosts and guests success and good health. Black moss seaweed and dried bean curd are symbols of wealth and happiness. A whole fish represents togetherness and abundance, while a chicken symbolises prosperity. Anything white, such as uncooked tofu is not served, as white is thought to bring bad luck. After all this rich food, on the thirteenth day, people eat simple rice soup and mustard greens to cleanse their system! The fourteenth day sees people preparing for the Lantern Festival held on the fifteenth night, when traditional Chinese lanterns are displayed and fireworks light the sky in a blaze of colour. Parents give children money in lucky red envelopes and families visit their neighbours to offer greetings. The message from the Chinese New Year celebrations is one of peace and happiness for family members and friends. It is a time for family and friends to unite and give thanks for their good fortune, as well as a chance to wish that their good luck continues! Do you celebrate the Chinese New Year? If so, tell us more about it. Do you celebrate New Year in a different way? If so, tell us more about it.[b][b] Luo, Bo Bin writes: I'm a Chinese reader of this article, as a Chinese I think maybe the writer of this article have some misunderstanding about Chinese New Year, or maybe all the author tells us is just the customs of the place which he/she visited. 1. As far as I know on the second day of Chinese most of the people in China don't treat dogs as well as the author said and as a Chinese I have never heard about the Dog's Birthday.[b]2. On the fifth day of Chinese New Year so far as I know people can do anything they like – before this I never knew if you visit friends and families it will bring bad luck.[b]3. At Chinese New Year it's a Chinese tradition to have a family reunion dinner but this dinner is not on the eighth day of Chinese New Year, it is held on the last night of the previous year.[b]4. Not only parents give their children money in lucky red envelopes, you must give the red bags to your family members children or even your friend's children. The red bags are not given on the Lantern Festival, they are given on the first day of the new year, and not only given to the children, but to the old people also. Maybe some places have special customers - you know China is such a big country - but in my personal thinking the author doesn't know Chinese New Year very well. I'm Chinese and in the last 20 years I have visited lots of places in China, and I think that what I have told you is the real Chinese New Year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is what the author replies: I am not Chinese and (to write this article) I did research on the subject through a number of different books and websites, so it could be that some of the information I found is true in certain parts of China, but not practised everywhere. As the writer says, China is a very big country and it is also a country which is changing very fast, so maybe some of the traditions I mention are not followed as closely as they may once have been. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pham Thuy Diep writes: I am Vietnamese and we have also a Lunar New Year like China. We often have a reunion dinner on the last day of the previous year. This is a rather important event so every member of the family tries his/ her best to gather on this day. On the first day of a new year, people don't want to be the first to visit another person's house as they are afraid that their visit will bring something bad to that house (as the first visit plays a very important role for the coming year). In fact, we believe that there is a cycle of 12 years. Each year in this cycle corresponds with one kind of animal, beginning with the mouse and then followed by the buffalo, tiger, cat, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, cock, dog, and pig. If this year is the year of the pig, it is bad for people who were born in the year of the tiger to come first in the New Year. This is a very old tradition and we don't know how to explain it. At midnight of the last day of the previous year (say 24:00), we prepare some food to pray to God. The Vietnamese believe that God will supervise all the activities of people done during the last year. The type of food is flexible but normally is sticky rice and whole boiled chicken (cock). We report to God and wish for everything to be good in the coming year. This time of praying is different from all praying during the previous year. It is carried out in an open area (I mean not inside). On the first day of the New Year, children (it doesn’t matter if they are your friends’ or your neighbours’) are given lucky money contained in a small red envelop. It is a dream that this money will bring health to those kids. From the second day of the New Year people feel free to come to their friends’ or relatives’ houses. It is a good time to see relatives and friends.