Chinese New Year
Austin Belschner, Leigh Cabuslay, Lauren Leitch
Historic Facts
The Chinese New Year is the most important of the holidays for Chinese. It is defined to be the first day of the first month in the traditional Chinese calendar. Unlike the Christian New Year which is based on a solar calendar, the Chinese New Year is based on a traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. A lunar month is around 2 days shorter than a solar month. In order to "catch up" with the solar calendar, an extra month is inserted every few years. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year. Normally, the celebration will start from the New Year's Eve and will last for around 15 days until the mid of the first month. Before the celebration, people will normally do a complete cleaning of the house and put on the traditional New Year decoration. Family reunion is the most important part of the Chinese New Year celebration. The New Year's Eve is the time for family reunion. Following by the reunion, people will normally visit relatives and friends, doing shopping, watch some traditional Chinese shows, launch some fireworks, and plan for the coming year. The celebration will sometimes be highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of heaven, earth, and other gods, as well as the family ancestors. In modern China, working professionals will normally have 7 days of holiday including weekend to celebrate. After the family reunion, some modern Chinese may take the chance to visit some tourist destinations.
History
Started in China
No exact date but it said to start from the year end religious ceremony in Shang
Dynasty, 1766 BC-1122 BC
According to tales and legends, it began out of fear, with fighting against a mythical beast named Nian, Year in english, who preyed on villagers .Traditions
New Year’s Eve Dinner- Family Gathering (China)
Fireworks- To Drive Out Evil (Everywhere)
Shou Sui- People Stay Up All Night With Fire to Drive Away Monsters (China)
Red Packets- Envelope of Money to Keep Monsters Away (China)
New Year Markets- Market Selling New Year Supplies (China)
Small Year- When The food god leaves and people have a ceremony (China Mostly, Depends on Religion)
Cleaning- To Get Rid of Old, Welcome New! (Depends)
Decorations- Everywhere)
Food
Dumplings
New Year Cake- Solid Cake made from glutinous rice flour and sugar.
Tang Yuan- Small Rice Flour Ball
LaBa Congee- Rice, Nuts, Beans
Noodles
Food Sample History- Noodles
Ancient Chinese noodles were made from millet grass grains. The modern wheat-based noodle that most people are familiar with did not reach Asia until much later, perhaps around AD 100. It is believed that noodles quickly spread from China to other Asian countries. Since then, they have spread to Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos and even many Southeast Asian and Asian island countries.