Happy Chinese New Year, collegiettes! In case you didn’t know, on February 10th, over a billion people worldwide celebrated the beginning of the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival as it has been called since the 20th century. Even if you’ve never been to China, and celebrate the start of the New Year on January 1st, chances are you’ve heard of and even participated in many of the common customs for the Spring Festival. As kids, many of us probably got to see one of the amazing “dragon dances”, watched the fireworks, and received leisee—the little red and gold envelopes filled with “lucky money” to bring good fortune in the coming year.
But for every custom of Chinese New Year that you have heard of, there are probably ten more that you haven’t. As the most important holiday in China that has been celebrated for three thousand years, it has gathered lots of traditions, folk lore, and superstitions. For example, many Chinese families hang a poster of the Kitchen God in their homes who, according to legend, returns to the heavens every New Year to report on the behavior of the family. It is tradition for families to offer a sacrifice to the Kitchen God, and for small children to rub honey on him so he will give a good report. Since red is considered an auspicious color, many families paint their doors red, along with hanging red papercuts around the house. New clothes must also be bought, along with “lucky food”. Fish is eaten because it sounds like “save more money”, dumplings are eaten for their resemblance to silver ingots, and rice cakes are popular because their name, nian gao, means “getting higher year by year”, which could mean success in business or healthy children.
This year is the year of the Snake—in Chinese folk lore, the 12 animals of the Zodiac fought over their order in the cycle, so the Jade Emperor suggested they have a race to determine their spots in the calendar. The rat is first because it hid in the ox’s ear, and jumped out and beat the ox to the other side of the river bank. The snake had a similar plan; it coiled itself around the horse’s leg and beat it to shore. Many Chinese, especially older people, believe that the Zodiac animal you are born under influences your personality, and hundreds of years ago, marriage matches were made according to the Zodiac animals. Supposedly, people born in the year of the snake tend to be secretive, wise, and hard-workers.
But why is Chinese New Year celebrated in the first place? The ancient legend states that there was once a beast called Nian, who had the head of a lion and the body of a bull. Towards the end of winter, when it had nothing left to eat, it terrorized the people and hunted them. Unable to fight the monster off, they had to hide away in their homes the whole winter. Over time, they learned that Nian was afraid of three things: fire, the color scarlet, and noise. They decided that they were done with being afraid of Nian—they started a fire in front of every house, painted their doors red, and made lots of noise instead of going to sleep. When Nian came down the mountain to eat the villagers, he saw the fire and the red doors and heard the noise, and ran into the mountains, never to come back. Each year, the villagers repeated the tradition to keep Nian away, which over the course of three thousand years, led to the rituals performed on Chinese New Year’s today. Today Chinese New Year is celebrated not only as a time to reestablish family ties and think about loved ones that have died, but also a time to relax, enjoy time away from work, and have fun.
Next year, Chinese New Year will take place on February 18th, and will be the year of the horse. And even though most people here celebrate the New Year on January 1st, Chinese New Year is not only fun and interesting, but it is also important—anything celebrated by over a billion people is worth knowing about! So happy Chinese New Year collegiettes! May this year bring you daai gat daai lei—much luck and much prosperity.