Chinese New Year (From News Shopper)

Chinese New Year

7:43pm Wednesday 1st February 2012 in Opinion & Blogs

Gong Xi!

The 23rd of January 2012, was Chinese New Year, otherwise known as the Spring Festival and marked the beginning of the Year of the Dragon-“long nian”. Chinese New Year is one of the most auspicious events in the calendar; the mother of the household will spend months preparing new, red outfits for the entire family, as shown in the HSBC advert, people exchange red envelopes containing money and the normal greeting of “ni hao”(hello) is exchanged for “gong xi” meaning Happy New Year.

The tradition of wearing red and decorating the house with red comes from the legend of Nian. The legend says that Nian was a fire breathing demon in the form of a dragon which lived in the mountains and would attack the nearby villages as winter was ending in order to feed on livestock and humans as Nian had been denied nourishment over winter due to the bad farming weather so the villagers had to eat the livestock they would sacrifice. This meant that the villagers lived in fear of Nian throughout winter. One year, a few of the village elders got together and realised that Nian was scared of three things: fire, the colour red and loud noise. So when it was time for Nian’s annual visit to the village, the elders got everyone to put up red boards, wear red clothes, start lots of fires and make lots of noise. When Nian arrived to this visual medley of flames and red and his ears were assaulted by the loud noises the villagers made, Nian retreated to the Mountains and hasn’t left since. So, in memory of Nian Chinese people all around the world celebrate Chinese New Year with the colour red, fireworks and dragon dances as they look forward to the warmth that spring will bring.