The Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year, generally refers to the New Year’s Eve and the 1st day of the first lunar month. However, for ordinary people, the Spring Festival in the traditional sense starts from the sacrifice on the 8th day of the twelfth lunar month or the sacrifice offering to the Kitchen God on the 23rd or 24th day of this month to the 15th day of the following month, among which the New Year’s Eve and the 1st day of the first lunar month are the highlights.
As a time-honored festival, its origin can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty, when sacrificial rites were held to offer sacrifices to gods and ancestors at the turn of the Chinese lunar calendar. The Han nationality and many minorities usually hold various activities to celebrate this festival. The main contents of those activities comprise offering sacrifices to gods, Buddha, and ancestors, cleaning away the old to bring forth the new, welcoming auspiciousness and happiness, as well as praying for a bumper harvest year. Those activities are abundant and colorful, with strong ethnic characteristics.
Chunlian: decorations on doors for spring festival
The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month: Offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God and have Zaotang (literally “hearth candy”)
People think the Kitchen God’s good words to the Jade Emperor can bring them happiness and bless them. Therefore, every family offers sacrifices to the Kitchen God on the 23rd day of every twelfth lunar month. Such a ritual means to “see the Kitchen God off.”
The 24th day of the twelfth lunar month: Sweep the house
After offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God, people will begin to prepare for the Chinese New Year. Sweeping the dust away before the Spring Festival is a traditional Chinese custom. When the Spring Festival is coming, all families will clean their rooms, appliances, bedding, curtains, and yards.
The 25th day of the twelfth lunar month: Make tofu and welcome the Jade Emperor
People usually make tofu on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month. According to research, tofu was invented by Prince of Huai-nan Liu An in the Western Han Dynasty. Surprisingly, eating residues of tofu before New Year’s Eve is a custom in some places.
The 26th day of the twelfth lunar month: Prepare the meat
People usually prepare the meat on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month. It’s called the “year meat” because the meat is only available for the ordinary people during the Spring Festival holiday in the underdeveloped agricultural society.
The 27th day of the twelfth lunar month: Take a bath, butcher chickens and go to market
People usually have a bath and do the washing to remove the whammy and welcome the new year on the 27th and 28th days of the twelfth lunar month. As the saying goes, “People usually remove diseases on the 27th and wash the dirt off on the 28th.” People take a bath on the 27th to pray for blessing.
The 28th day of the twelfth lunar month: Make niangao (year cake), steam buns and paste decorations
As the proverb goes, “People make niangao, steam buns and paste decorations on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month” or “People leaven the dough on the 28th.” Decorations to be pasted include New Year pictures, Spring Festival couplets, window paper-cuts, etc. The custom of pasting the Spring Festival couplets originated from the ancient “taofu (peach wood charms against evil).” The ancients used peach wood to ward off evil.
The 29th day of the twelfth lunar month: Sweep tombs and offer sacrifices to ancestors
Tomb-sweeping and sacrifice offering to ancestors usually occur on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month. Chinese people have kept the custom of offering sacrifices to their ancestors since ancient times. Honoring the dead as the living is a core content of filial piety and the embodiment of the virtue of venerating the elderly. The Spring Festival is a grand festival, so tomb-sweeping and sacrifice offering to ancestors are particularly solemn. The rituals usually occur on the morning of the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month.
The 30th day of the twelfth lunar month (New Year’s Eve): Paste pictures of threshold guardians, paste Spring Festival couplets, stay up, have New Year’s Eve dinner, give lucky money, offer sacrifices to ancestors and send Mammon
In the words, chu xi (New Year’s Eve), “chu” means “removal” in Chinese, and “chu xi” means “the end of a year,” when people are ready to welcome a new year. Therefore, all the activities during this period are about cleaning away the old to bring forth the new and praying for the elimination of disasters.
New year eve`s dinner
The 1st day of the first lunar month: Give New Year’s greetings, forecast the next year’s harvest, and abstain from using brooms or dumping garbage
An important activity during the Spring Festival is to send best wishes on the New Year to relatives, friends, and neighbors, which is called giving New Year’s greetings. This custom of the Han nationality emerged in the Han Dynasty and boomed after the Tang and Song Dynasties. Some ancients who had inconvenience in visiting in person could send their greetings with name cards. In Eastern Han Dynasty, the name card was called “Ci (standing for carving the name and other information on a piece of wood),” so the business card is also called “Mingci.” After the Ming Dynasty, many families put up a red paper bag at the door to collect name cards, which is called the “door book.”
The 2nd day of the first lunar month: Worship the God of Wealth.
On this day, the shops and families in North China will hold sacrificial activities to worship the God of Wealth with fish and mutton as offerings. Northerners will also eat Huntun (dough wrapper with meat stuffing) at noon on this day. To hold grand sacrificial activities on this day, large-scale firms in Beijing will use five major offerings, i.e., whole pigs, whole sheep, whole chickens, whole ducks, live red carps, etc., to express their wishes to make a fortune in the next year.
The 3rd day of the first lunar month: Fast on rice, worship ancestors and gods, abstain from butchering sheep
It is said that Nvwa creates sheep on this day, so it is called the Sheep Day when people cannot slaughter sheep. The good weather on this day symbolizes that in the next year, the sheep will be well-bred, and the sheep-raising people will have a good harvest. This day is also known as the rice’s birthday when people pray for a good harvest and fast on rice.
Lighting party during 1st lunar month
The 5th day of the first lunar month: Worship the God of Wealth, send the Ghost of Poverty, and commence business
This day is commonly known as Powu when many New Year taboos can be lifted. According to the tradition, people will eat boiled dumplings for five days since this day, which is called boiling wheaten food in North China. On this day, women no longer taboo to go out and begin to visit each other to celebrate and congratulate on the New Year. In addition, the newly-married women will return to their parents’ house on this day. It is said that things should not be done on this day; otherwise, everything will go wrong in the next year. In addition to the above traditions, people will also send the Ghost of Poverty, welcome the God of Wealth, and start a business.
The 7th day of the first lunar month: Celebrate the birth of humans, make pancakes, and eat the porridge with seven ingredients
According to the legend, this day is human’s birthday when Nvwa creates humans after creating chickens, dogs, pigs, cows, horses, and other animals. This festival began in the Han Dynasty and flourished after the Wei and Jin Dynasties. On this day, ancients would wear Rensheng, a kind of headwear, also known as Caisheng and Huasheng. Since the Jin Dynasty, people began to cut colored paper into the shape of flowers or human, or pasted the human-shaped gold foil to the screen, or wear it on the hair.
The 8th day of the first lunar month: Fast on cooked cereals and light lanterns to worship the gods
Folk legend says that the gods will come to the mortal world on this day, so people will make and light small lanterns to worship the gods, which is called Shunxing, also known as Jixing (god sacrificing) and Jiexing (god welcoming). Two pieces of papers will be used for sacrifice, one printed with Xingke, Zhuque, Xuanwu, and other characters, and one with “the God of Longevity of the year of birth.” The two pieces of paper will be stacked together, clipped on a clamp, and placed in the center of the courtyard behind the altar.
The 15th day of the first lunar month: Hold lantern shows to celebrate the Lantern Festival
As one of the major traditional festivals in China, the Lantern Festival is also known as Yuanxi, Yuanye, and Shangyuan Festival because it is the first full-moon night of a year (Yuan Month stands for the first lunar month, and the ancients called the night as Xiao or Xi). The name of the Lantern Festival originates from the custom of enjoying lanterns on that day. Moreover, the Lantern Festival bears a long-standing history. According to general information and folklore, this festival has been attached with importance since the Western Han Dynasty.