中国传统节日(CHINESE TRADITIONAL FESTIVAL)
中国传统节日(CHINESE TRADITIONAL FESTIVAL) 人们过春节时的活动 What would People Do in Spring Festival 中国人的拜年 Chinese Bainian
The Spring Festival
春节概述 Brief Introduction Of Spring Festival
Spring Festival, the traditional Chinese New Year’s Day, is China’s most important national holiday. The date of the new year is still determined by the lunar calendar even though the government of the Republic of China adopted the international Gregorian calendar(国际公历) in 1912. New Year’s Day typically occurs sometime in early spring (February).
The Spring Festival like Christmas Day in the western countries, is the most important festival in China. Children like it very much because they can have delicious things to eat, pretty clothes to wear and many nice things to play with. When Spring Festival comes, people away from their hometowns usually come back and spend it with their families. People mainly do two things during the festival. One is eating, and the other is playing. They usually buy different kinds of food and make different kinds of delicious dishes, and play in different ways.
In the spirit of setting things straight, all account books(银行账户) should be balanced, debts paid off, and houses cleaned before New Year’s Day. Then houses, businesses, and streets are decked and draped(挂上) with banners, flowers, and scrolls(卷) of vivid red, a traditionally lucky and demon-dispelling hue(消除邪恶的色调).
Early on the first morning of the Spring Festival, families set out to pay a lunar New Year visit to each other after the members of each family greet each other with lunar New Year wishes. This is called in Chinese“ Bainnian”, meaning paying the Spring Festival visits and greetings. Usually, the young pay a visit to the old while the people about the same age share equal greetings; then, visits are paid in sequence to relatives of close kinship [ˈkɪnˌʃɪp](亲属关系), relations, neighbors, teachers, friends and colleagues. To kowtow [kaʊˈtaʊ, ˈkaʊˌtaʊ](磕头) used to be one of the rites(仪式) involved in paying the spring Festival visits, but now it is replaced by the Spring Festival greetings with best wishes, for instance, wishes for a good fortune. When the junior pay the senior the Spring Festival visit, the latter [ˈlætə](后者) are supposed to give the former some money as a gift, which is known “money for an added age.”（ 给长者压岁钱）
红包 Chinese Hongbao
Giving hongbao (red packets or red envelopes) during the Chinese New Year is another famous tradition. Red packets are every child’s dream during the Chinese New Year. A red packet is simply a red envelope with money inside to symbolize [ˈsɪmbəˌlaɪz](象征) luck an wealth. Red packets are symbolically handed out to younger generations by parents, grandparents, relatives, close neighbors and friends. The practice represents a desire for good fortune and wealth in the coming year.
