How We Say “Happy New Year”
During Chinese New Year, saying the phrase “happy new year” is essential in the process of celebrating the Spring Festival. We even travel for miles to see relatives to say “happy new year” to them. However, we do not merely say “ 新年快乐 ”when we meet others. Instead, some words to wish others good luck have been used by us ever since we can talk. These words, which all Chinese are familiar with, have deeper meanings with regard to their word constructions. We sometimes play with them and create puns within these words, which I think are some of the most interesting characteristics in Chinese language.
For Example, there is a phrase called “年年有鱼”. If we translate the phrase directly, it would be “having fish every year”. The translation make the phrase seems not a blessing at all, but rather an absurd meaning. However, we actually play with the sound of it. The word “fish” in Chinese sounds similar with “extra” in Chinese. Therefore, the true meaning of the phrase is actually “making extra fortune every year”. It is ridiculous right? But this reflects one the the most significant characteristics of Chinese. It is not allowed to say out blessings straightforwardly or it would not come true. We tend to leave a space of imagination to the language we speak. The same rule applies with the phrase “碎碎平安” as well. “碎” means “break”, which is the same with the pronunciation of “岁” which means “age”. As a result, the phrase which means “ to break to be safe ” when directly translated changes its meaning to “be safe every year” . These phrases pass through generations and generations and every Chinese should know what it means.
Nevertheless, blessing words and sentences may differ from regions to regions. The expressions in southern regions may be separated from the that of northern regions due to accents and habitats. However, as we are being more and more connected and people move from cities to cities, the language differences became less and less. At lease in my experience, I do not see much difference in terms of language. My father is a northerner, my mother is a southerner. We have celebrated Spring Festival in both places. Except for tremendous difference in customs(dumplings or rice dumplings, difference types of mahjong, etc.), we say the same thing to others and we can both understand each other.
Yet after I come to America, I realize huge differences between ABC and native Chinese. Some traditions that are largely eradicated in China maintain here in America instead. For example, sweeping floors for good luck. Our traditions have been changed, and so have been our language. There may be huge differences among regions before, but are eliminated during these decades.
As far as I am concerned, the puns of blessing words in Chinese during the Spring Festival highly fascinates me and they reflect our habitats indeed. We should learn and explore them gradually.
