“Xin Nian Hao”
Time flies, and the new year has come. I am not talking about Christmas or the new year that has passed a month ago here. What I am discussing here is the Spring Festival which mostly happens on Febuary. Last year it was the same day as Valentine’s Day, and this year is one day later. The date of Spring Festival changes every year because it based on lunar calendar, the one people do not use often any more. Some old people like my grandpa’s generation may still using lunar calendar to determine their birthday (not for me though, and my birthday is coming soon — Feb. 26th, time to send me some gifts lol).
I used to celebrate chinese new year with my family, but not any more after I went to U.S. (I tried once, but I ended up crying because my family’s not around). In China, kids have winter break that tends to celebrate the new year because the dates of the break is determined by when the new year comes. During that time, all transportation organization would be busy since people went home from other places. We stayed up late, watching government issued TV show, gathering all family members up and having nice big dinner, playing fireworks, and elder people would give kids red envelops with money in it (I handed all my red envelops to my grandparents later on because they told me they are going to save it up for my college tuition, yet I haven’t seen any after I went to UCSB). It is the happiest day of the year. Even though people do the same thing every year, not mentioning how boring the government issued TV show is, people still love to do these things every year with the dearest people in this world on that specific day.
During big dinner with the whole family, people drink. Elder people drink alcohol, and kids drink soda or milk. My grandpa used to teach me to stand up and say “good luck words.” To kids like my age, I would say “Xin Nian Hao” (Happy New Year). To adults like my parents, I would say “Gong Xi Fa Cai” (Wish you earn lots of money) or “Sheng Yi Xing Long” (wish your business went well). To elder people like my grandparents, I would say “Shou Bi Nan Shan” (wish you lice longer like the evergreens). Different people with different wishes because people under different age range do things differently.
Overall, Spring Festival is most serious, interesting day for Chinese people to celebrate. I would recommend foreign people to go during that time to see how RED China is during that day, and how the atmosphere there is. I surely guarantee that anyone went there during Spring Festival would fell in love with Chinese food as well.
