英文版 新年习俗

The customs on Spring Festival

In China, the preparations for the Spring Festival, in anticipation for the “Year of the Dragon” can reveal many traditional Chinese customs.

Let’s look at the transportations. Most Chinese people choose to spend this “most important festival” with their families and their friends, so they are heading home. Students and migrant workers are certainly included in the group, they are returning to distant provinces, expecting to be with their loved-ones. They may have not seen their families for a long time. So it is a time, when all of China seems to be on the move. The railway stations and bus stations are full of people who are eager to get home. Public transportation during China’s Spring Festival is stained beyond capacity. We can say “The whole country is on the move, every year, during China’s Spring Festival.” Getting home, to be with family, is the undeterred goal of every Chinese during Spring Festival.

Before the Chinese New Year’s Day, people go to markerts and buy special purchases for Spring Festival, including fish, meat, wine, vegetables, fruits and candies for the celebration. Everyone would like to buy more, for celebrating the last year’s harvest and welcoming the new year . And people also clean houses before Chineese New Year, wash various utensils, and wash beddings and curtains. That custom means that people hope to get rid of the ill fortunes and wish for welcoming the new year, blessings and fortunes.

Besides that, people also paste Spring Festival couplets and the character “Fu” on the door. The poetic couplets neatly, dual ly, concisely, exquisitely depict the text background and express our desires for the new year. No matter on the farms or in the cities, every family paste one couple of couplets.The charac ter “Fu” ususally are posted upside down, meaning the good fortune come to the family.The red paper-cuttings are pasted on the windows, whose different patterns revealing people’s best wishes. Chinese people favor the red colour most because it is a traditionally lucky and demon-dispelling hue. And the red couplet , “Fu” and paper-cutting can add festive atmosphere.

On the Eve of the New Year, many people stay up all the night, the elder stay up for welcoming the new year, the young stay up for wishing the elder’s long life and health. During the staying-up, the whole family get together, talking and laughing, make dumplings and have a big family reunion dinner . People light the fireworks for celebrating the new year. That will be a sleepless night. On the first day of New Year, people usually pay the New Year’s call on relatives. The elder will give red evelops to children, hoping them to grow up healthily. And the young will give red envelops to the older for best wishes.