February 1st, 2003 is the Lunar New Year's Day in China this year, which is the year of ram.
The Lunar New Year, also known as the "Spring Festival", is a time of great excitement and joy for the Chinese people. It is the most important holiday to the Chinese. The festivities get under way from 22 days prior to the New Year date and continue for 15 days afterwards.
The high point of the season is New Year's Eve. Every member of every family returns home on this day, if possible, to share a sumptuous dinner with his/her family. Children receive "red envelopes" containing gifts of lucky money. Sleep is not easy on this night as the New Year is ushered in with the thunderous roar of exploding firecrackers and whistling rockets calculated to frighten the fiercest of evil spirits and venerate the gods. This continues sporadically until after dawn on New Year's Day. Nowadays watching Spring Festival Party on CCTV£¬China Central Television Station, is also an important activity for many families.
During the time period before New Year, people acquire and prepare the necessary food and new clothing to wear. Food has a major prominence in all Chinese festivals, and New Year is no exception. This is the time to have "jiaozi", dumplings, the symbolic food of Spring Festival. Fish is another delectable food. The Chinese word for fish rhymes with the word for surplus. By eating half of a fish on New Year's Eve and saving the remainder for the next day, families can transfer their surplus luck to the New Year.
Spring poems or couplets, consisting of lucky phrases written in black or golden ink on red paper are pasted on or around every family door. Breakfast on the first day of the festival is followed by a round of visits. The first stop, traditionally, is made at a local temple, where respects are paid to the gods. Next come visits to relatives and friends.
Business owners, in particular, join in this ceremony, because the Earth God, the God representing prosperity, is believed to be the god of merchants. Employers are expected to hold a banquet to thank their workers for their efforts during the past year.
Traditionally, certain precautionary measures are taken to insure that the New Year will be a good one. Every house gets a thorough cleaning before New Year's Day, all household utensils washed and unwanted items discarded, so that the coming New Year will commence fresh and clean. No sweeping is done on New Year's Day, for in sweeping any dirt from the house the family's good luck might also be swept away.
Nowadays, Spring Festival's Eve and the first three days of the New Year are observed as a pubic holiday, although this break lasts up to a week this year. Movie theaters, major restaurants and shops are essentially the only businesses open during the holiday. People return to work between the fifth and eighth days of the New Year, but the holiday atmosphere lasts through the Lantern Festival, on the 15th day of the first lunar month.
