8 Things You Might Not Know About Chinese New Year

You might have heard a few things about chinese New Year already. You ’ ve probably heard about the firecrackers and possibly even the money in red envelopes that older members of the class give to new children to celebrate the festival .
And as you would expect with a major syndicate festival, it involves a large kin meal and batch of trips to see relatives .
But there are early things about the spring festival that are less widely-known, thus with the modern year just around the corner, I want to take a look at some of the aspects of the festival I ’ ve found out since coming to China that you might not know about .

1. The traditions are different all over China

As China is such a huge and divers country, some of the fresh year traditions are different in different parts of the area, and one of the biggest differences is in the food consume at the New Year ’ s Eve meal .
In northerly China, people normally eat dumplings as one of the main foods, and they will frequently hide coins in some of them. If you get a dumpling with a coin in the stuff, then it is thought that you will be affluent and comfortable in the class to come .
In the south of China, people much eat rice cake ( called 年糕niángāo in Chinese ), made of gluey rice flour. The give voice ‘ 年糕 ’ besides implies that you will rise in condition with every class. In some of the southern provinces, like Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, people even put rice cakes in a hot pot, something that you don ’ t see in northern China .

2. There is a tradition of going home wearing new clothes

In China, it is traditional to buy new clothes before the New year to wear during the festival, because it symbolises a new start for the new year. Ideally, everything you wear from point to toe should be a newfangled buy .
chinese people besides like to clean the whole house to prepare for the festival and welcome in the new year. Others will freshen up their appearance and get a new hair cut. Hair salons raise their prices dramatically before the new year to take advantage of this !

3. It can be incredibly difficult to get a train ticket

taiwanese New Year is the time when all chinese people go home to their families, and many people are living and working hundreds of miles away from their families, specially migrant workers who move from less developed areas to find work in the big cities. All of these millions of people travelling on the lapp dates puts huge pressure on the railroad track system .
Before I came to China, I had seen photos of crowded prepare stations and people travelling with huge amounts of baggage, but I had never thought about the hardheaded consequence of securing a train ticket .
In the last few years, you have been able to buy caravan tickets online, and a soon as sales open, all the tickets to key places are by and large snapped up within barely a couple of minutes. It ’ s like the biggest music festival or consequence in the earth. Everybody is competing for the same thing !
I ’ m please to say that I have managed to get tickets every year in the end, waiting patiently for more tickets to be refunded or released .

4. You can rent a girlfriend to take home to your family

There have been a distribute of posts online written by people venting their frustration about the pressure from their parents and extended family at New Year to find a girlfriend / boyfriend and get married. For single chinese people in their 20s or tied 30s in China, Chinese New Year can be a nerve-racking time .
There have even been stories in the media of stressed-out bachelors ‘ renting ’ a girlfriend on-line for a large sum of money to take home plate to their family. I ’ m not sure if the families were convinced !

5. The animal sign for the year is everywhere

In the West, the Chinese animal signs are reasonably well known, but if you come to China around the New Year, you will see the animal to the year to come wherever you look .
I remember when it was the year of the cavalry, there were cavalry toys on sale in all of the shops, and everybody was using four fictional character phrases containing the character for knight. There were horses all over the television receiver shows and parodies on sociable media .
This year ( 2022 ) is the year of the Tiger, and I have already seen dozens of delicate plaything Tiger .
If your animal signboard is the same as the one for the coming year, then it is traditional to wear red. A draw of people don ’ thyroxine want to dress in full in red, so they will just wear loss socks or flush bolshevik underpants. If you ’ re actually traditional, you should wear red every day of the year, but I haven ’ t seen anybody doing that so far .

6. Everybody stays up to watch the same TV gala

On Chinese New Year ’ second Eve, it ’ randomness traditional to stay up late to see in the raw year, and to keep everybody entertained, there is a major New Year Gala on Chinese state television .
When I came to China, I was surprised to find that all across the nation, people are glued to the lapp show, which is a mix of traditional performances, comedy and singing. Because it is on state television receiver, it besides has a draw of political elements to it. The best way to describe it is something like a variety show show, and it ’ s one of the most-watched programs anywhere in the worldly concern. To get on it is a huge accomplishment, and in late years, I was surprised to see western stars like Celene Dion make appearances singing chinese songs !

7. Lucky money red envelopes have gone online

New year red envelopes with lucky money inside them ( called 红包 hóngbāo in Chinese ) are normally given by parents or older relatives to young children. Older children who are earning their own money besides give them to aged relatives and to the older coevals .
But what you might not know is that red envelopes have nowadays gone digital ! In the survive year or two, sending lucky money using the messaging app WeChat has become a fad, with people scrambling to snatch them up. You don ’ t have to send money directly to one person, either. You can set up a old world chat group with all your friends, send 100 yuan in total between 6 people, and everybody has to try their fortune to see how much they get. It has become a new on-line game, and one that is highly addictive !
major companies have besides jumped on the bandwagon by offering thousands of loss envelopes online to be snatched up in viral market campaigns, which have been huge successes .

8. It’s important to eat fish as part of the New Year’s Eve meal

I already mentioned that eating dumplings for the raw class is important in northerly China, but pisces is besides a all-important separate of the New Year ’ s Eve meal, because the bible for fish in Mandarin is 鱼 ( yú ), and it sounds the same as the character 余 ( yú ), which means excess, and is used in the phrase 年年有余 ( may you have a excess every year ) .
For this reason, pisces has an crucial emblematic set in the New Year ’ s Eve feast, and it can ’ triiodothyronine be left out .
I hope you enjoy my round-up of lesser-known Chinese New Year facts. It ’ s about time to start hanging up the lanterns and preparing provisions for the festival, then last, let me wish you a very happy Chinese New Year, and a comfortable year to come ! 新年快乐 ( xīnnián kuàilè ) !

source : https://kembeo.com
Category : Fashion