Luckily, like all mythological creatures, Nian has a gaping weakness: It's scared of the colour red and loud noises. The villagers discovered this weakness and dressed in red, hang red lanterns and red couplets on windows and doors, and lit firecrackers to frighten away Nian.
It was super effective!
Nian never came back again, but the traditions stayed on.
More widely known as 'Spring Festival'(春节) in China, it has deep agricultural roots, signifying the end to long freezing winter days and the return of spring, bringing warmth back to the land so farmers can start their activities once again.
Year of the Horse
Based on the Chinese zodiac calendar, 2014 is the year of the horse. If you're born in 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990 2002, 2014 (or any year in this 12 year cycle), this is your year!People born in the year of the horse are thought to be energetic and very sociable, but they can also be strong minded and have a fiery temper.
Unfortunately, being in your own zodiac year, or ben ming nian (本命年), isn't exactly a good thing to the Chinese, because your zodiac animal clashes with the Tai Sui, a Taoist deity. This is known as 'Fan Tai Sui' (犯太岁) and is thought to have bad luck on the person's career, relationship and health.
The Chinese trick to surviving your Ben Ming Nian is to deck yourself in lantern red: red underwear, red socks, red belts, red shoes. Stack them for bonus points.
In essence, forget about what colour is in season or makes your eye pop. Red is your colour this year, red is the new black.
be sure to stock up on red underwear in 2014 if you're born in the year of HorseChinese New Year Celebrations
Traditionally, CNY is celebrated for at least 15 days, accompanied by a detailed list of activities to do or avoid on each day.
Thankfully, people got progressively lazier and many of these traditions are dispensed with. Today, it is mainly celebrated as a festive of gathering and reunion where family members would get together and have a massive feast known as the Reunion Dinner on the CNY Eve and pay visits to their friends and extended relatives to wish them well for the new year.
a typical homemade reunion dinner in China may look like: dumplings, fish, Chinese sausages
In mainland China, dumplings is the key dish that simply cannot be missed from the reunion dinner. Making dumplings with my (now deceased) grandmother every CNY eve is one of my fondest childhood memories.
The homemade dumplings are usually bigger in size than the Har Gaos (prawn dumplings) you would typically find in Ding Tai Fung or other Hong Kong restaurants. Their skin are thicker so the texture is more chewy, and their fillings are usually meat based with some kind of veggies like cabbage or chive.
Over the sumptuous dinner, families would watch CCTV New Year's Gala (春节联欢晚会), a 4 hours long New Year’s Eve countdown variety show on CCTV that is watched by 700 million all over the world.
Close to midnight, families would put on their coats and go outside to set off firecrackers to usher in the new year. In recent year however, due to the fire hazard and pollution it cause, playing with firecrackers has been limited to restricted areas or banned altogether.
Celebrations overseas
In Singapore and Malaysia where there is a significant percentage of TeoChew Chinese, Yu Sheng replace dumplings as the highlight of the reunion dinner.
Yusheng usually consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon), mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. Yusheng literally means "raw fish" but since "fish (鱼)" is commonly conflated with its homophone "abundance (余)", Yúshēng (鱼生) is interpreted as a homophone for Yúshēng (余升) meaning an increase in abundance. Therefore, yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.
During the meal, diners at the table would stand up and toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying well wishes, with each toss higher than the previous, symbolizing progression and advancement. It's a messy but fun activity that is culturally significant in Singapore and Malaysia, but is virtually unheard of in most of China and Chinese communities elsewhere.
Many countries also organize annual street parades comprising of dragon/lion dance, dragon boat rowing and performances by dancers, musicians and martial artists. Singapore has the largest annual street parade in Asia, Chingay Parade, featuring extravagant floats and thousands of volunteers and performers (think Chinese themed Mardi Gras).
If you're living in Sydney like me, don't miss the Twilight Parade that goes from Sydney Townhall to Chinatown.
Spring Travel
A unique cultural phenomenon in China associated with Chinese New Year is spring travel.
In China, many students and workers who study, live and work in different cities would return to their hometown and reunite with their family during Chinese New Year. For a majority of these people, this is the only time of the year where they would see their family members, because they either don't have enough annual leaves or holidays during the year or can't afford the travel expenses. Many families would also choose to travel together around Chinese New Year, adding to the traffic.
Traveling during this period is known as Chun Yun (春运, spring travel) and last for about 40 days from 16th Jan and 24 February this year. It posed a huge infrastructural challenge to the transport system in China due to the sheer volume of travel. There're just never enough buses, trains or planes !
The Chinese government tried to prepare for this every year, but still find it impossible to accommodate the increasing demand. For one, the online ticketing system for train tickets would buckle under the load of new year traffic, making it impossibly hard to get a rail ticket, or to get onto the train itself.
In 2006, the number of passenger journeys first exceeded the population of China, hitting over 2 billion. The volume is estimated to be 3.62billion in 2014, it has been called the largest annual human migration in the world.
So if you think going home for Christmas or thanksgiving is bad, just think about what the Chinese have to go through to see their families on Chinese New Year...
my CNY Celebration 2014
Since joining Google almost threes years ago, this is the first time we had a major celebration at work. We decorated the workplace cafe, ate dumplings, sang CNY songs, watched Chun Wan and generally had a good time.
As one of the main organizers for the celebration this year, I had first hand experience into the logistic nightmare that goes into planning such an event. For instance, it was almost impossible to get any performers during the period, I started inquiring about lion dance troupes and performers three weeks in advance, only to be informed that they were all already booked out 6 months ago!
It was also an interesting experience buying and putting up the decorations, who knew there were so many steps required to assemble the lanterns and while they may look light as air the big ones weight like a elephant!
Special thanks to my husband Simon who helped me carry thirty big lanterns back to work and spent the new years eve putting them up. In the words of Li Na, You very nice man! I very lucky! Half way through the decorating the light went off so we had to finish everything in the dark. We were both sore the next day but it was a very memorable experience.
This is a playlist I compiled for the event, you can play it around the house for some festival cheers. You can also watch the CCTV New Year's Gala 2014 in full here.
Here's wishing all my readers a prosperous and happy 2014 year !
No comments:
Post a Comment