Having its roots in traditional spring festivals, the Chinese New Year is celebrated with much enthusiasm mostly in East Asian and South East Asian countries and in nations with significant Chinese populations. It is the most important traditional Chinese holiday and is full of traditional rituals and practices harking back to its ancient beginnings. The New Year falls on the 1st day of the first month according to the Chinese traditional lunar calendar and draws to a close on the 15th day which coincides with the Lantern Festival. Based on historic practices, red is the predominant colour of the festival and denotes joy, virtue, truth and sincerity. Each dawning year is named after an animal according to the Chinese Zodiac.
Preparations for the festival start long before the actual date; at least a month ahead, houses are cleaned, painted and decorated from top to bottom to get rid of bad luck, and in order to signify a new beginning, debts are settled, new clothes are bought and plenty of traditional dishes and other kinds of food are prepared. Special traditional cookies and cakes are made to be given away to friends and offered to deities. Red paper with Chinese characters for prosperity, longevity and wealth are pasted either in front or inside houses. The festivities commence on New Years Eve, when Chinese families come together from all corners of the country triggering a short lived mass migration like no other.
A traditional dinner comprises of such food as seafood, dumplings and other delicacies with each food having positive associations such as happiness, liveliness and prosperity. Following the meal the family sits around playing games till midnight until the New Year dawns which is celebrated with colourful and noisy fireworks! As the day moves on, Chinese temples are crowded with people clad in red offering prayers, food and gifts to Chinese deities as the first important activity of the day. Ang Pow, a packet with money is distributed to children and the elderly. Generosity plays an important part with an open house being maintained to entertain friends and relatives.
Streets and neighbourhoods echo to the sound of many entertainment activities that take place during this period and culminate with the lion or dragon dance during the lantern festival on the final day of the New Year. Homes are festooned with specially made lanterns with red again being the predominant colour. Crowds of people carrying lanterns light the way for a silk clad lion or dragon head with a snaking body that is taken about the streets accompanied by the noise of fire crackers, clashing of cymbals and drums. Although various additions have crept into the traditional elements of the festival depending on where it takes place, the general theme is peace and happiness for family and friends.
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