Welcoming New Year In Asia With Ancient Traditions

By John Chan

There are number of traditions which revived during Chinese New Year which we will discuss below.

The ancient custom and traditions are an essential part of China and as such they take a lot of pride in them. The whole of China together desire to preserve these activities related to their traditions and as such celebrate them from time to time with aim of carrying them forward.

The Chinese New Year is a time when you manage to see Chinese traditions in full bloom. A hub of traditional activity explodes onto the scene during the first few weeks of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese have a whole set of beliefs and traditional practices with regards to the welcoming of a new year. One can pretty much see how deeply the age old traditions are embedded in the Chinese culture by looking at all the traditional practices that are brought into light during New Year celebrations.

The celebrations are carried on in huge scale during the New Year in China for another reason. The mass media is very efficient in reporting all the happenings of this time to the whole world. The western people find these traditions strange with a mystical air about them. Their interest heightened they come to China in large number to witness these traditions thus giving a great push to the China's tourism industry.

The traditional celebrations officially begin a night or two before the actual New Year arrives and go up to the 15th day of the first month of the New Year. This is a great time to have fun and do business in China as people are happy and cheerful and willing to spend their money as well!

Every home receives a thorough cleaning for welcoming the New Year. The ill fortunes of last year are thrown away and the house is beautified and purified for welcoming the good fortune of the coming year.

Doors and windows are painted red as per tradition. Red is the color of New Year in China. The traditional belief is that it wards away all sorts of evil spirits and omens and keeps the house protected from any harm.

If you visit China during the New Year you will find a good number of decorations in all houses. There are couplets as well as paper cuttings which are the signs of happiness and wealth and so on. There are different wall papers, paintings and scrolls which people put up to decorate their homes.

The Chinese prefer to celebrate the New Years Eve with their complete family as is the tradition and it is done with a lot of enthusiasm. A special dish is cooked for this occasion known as jiaozi which is actually dumplings in boiled water and it is together with all family members.

Playing games and watching televisions are some activities that the Chinese enjoy in on the New Years Eve. They watch special programs all night long on the television to remain awake. They also keep the lights on the whole night as they believe that doing so their parents will receive long and healthy life.

The real day begins with good wishes, presents, lantern parades, Kung fu acts, concerts and other various forms of celebrations that last a whole two weeks and end with the dragon dance with the fireworks on the night of the first full moon putting an end to the show of ancient traditions in modern times. - 33385

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