Check out these fantastic facts on Chinese New Year and
have a grand celebration.
The Chinese New Year festivities is sometimes called the Lunar New Year,
especially by people outside China.
The Chinese people age a year together. Tradition holds that on the
seventh day of the new year, all people in China become a year older.
On the fifteenth and final day of the Chinese New Year celebrations, the
Chinese Lantern Festival is observed. Almost all members of Chinese
families walk the streets with lanterns, marking the end of festivities
and gorge on traditional dishes.
The "tsujiura senbei" is a kind of fortune cookie associated with New
Year festivities at Shinto Shrines.
Its unique name comes from the fact that it contains a tsujiura (a
writing that tells one's fortunes) inside a senbei (Japanese crackers).
This Japanese food is centuries old.
During the Chinese New Year Festival only married couples give "Ang
Pow"s, red envelopes containing money to buy holiday treats, to their
kids or relatives of their younger generations instead of giving
presents. Following a popular superstition, the money in the red packets
always total upto an even numbered amount and never an odd numbered one
because the latter is usually associated with funeral money. Also, the
money should never add up to anything with the number 4 in it, because 4
in Chinese sounds like the word ‘death’.
Every year, China Central Television (CCTV) holds a special on Lunar New
Year's Eve, featuring dances, songs, and short comedies.
During the Xia Dynasty, the Chinese New Year was traditionally said to
have begun with month 1. In 221 BC, the first Emperor of China Qin Shi
Huang changed the beginning of the year to month 10. But in 104 BC,
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty again established month 1 as the beginning
of the year.
In ancient China, bamboo stems filled with gunpowder were burnt to
create small explosions in the belief that the loud sound drove away
evil spirits. The burning of firecrackers in modern-day China still
maintains this age-old custom.
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