Celebrating the Spring Festival

Spring Festival is the most important festival for Chinese people  when all family members get together. Chinese people have seven days off for the Chinese Lunar New Year. The most important days are Spring Festival Eve and the first three days.

When the Spring Festival is coming, we buy a lot of special purchases for the Spring Festival, candied winter melon(growth and good health), assorted candies (sweet and fortune), red melon seed (joy, happiness, truth and sincerity), cumquat (prosperity), candied lotus seed (many descendents to come), candied lotus root (fulfilling love relationship), red dates (prosperity), peanut candy (sweet),and pine nut. We paste poetic couplet, Spring Festival couplets, paper-cuts and New Year paintings. The Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. We hang big red lantern. We fire a salute, firecrackers and fireworks. The famous folk programs are lion dance, dragon dance, traditional opera and variety show.

For the reunion dinner, we sacrifice to the ancestors, watch Spring Festival Party on CCTV,and stay up till 12 o'clock, on Spring Festival Eve. Dumplings, Niangao, eight treasures rice pudding, boiled eggs, and fish are some of various kinds of food served on New Year's Eve dinner in China.

Waking up on New Year, everybody dresses up. First they extend greetings to their parents. Then each child will get money in a red pocket.

The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month. People usually eat different kinds of yuanxiao.They are very delicious.

This Spring Festival was wonderful and excited, I’m very glad！

                                        Cathy