28th of this year, Chinese people will be celebrating the biggest traditional festival. And this is not any but the New year celebration. How big is this celebration? It is celebrated by almost the fifth of the world population, that means more than one billion people will be celebrating. On top of that, many East Asian countries will be celebrating this new year as they share most of the history and culture so it is not a surprise. During this time, schools are closed, shops are closed and most of the people will be on a month long holiday to give them a time to celebrate the CNY(Chinese New Year).
This is a long time tradition in China, every year the date is different due to the difference in Lunar and Solar calenders, but most of the time it falls between 21st January to 20th February.
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| Picha inaonyesha baadhi ya miiko kipindi cha mwaka mpya |
The festival was held to celebrate the new planting season, during the time, most of the Chinese people depended on Agriculture. With development, most of the Chinese people are not peasants anymore, but they haven't quit their traditional ways of celebrating Spring festival. Most of them go to the cities to find work, and during this time they all have to go back to their hometown to celebrate this important festival, almost 200 million people travel back to their hometown every year during this time. The tradition have changed from praying for more harvest, to get better jobs and fortune.
They celebrate for the whole month, eventhough the most important day is the new year day. With development, it is harder to celebrate for the whole month, and so, celebration period have been adjusted from one week to two weeks, all those who have to work during this period receives extra payment and bonus.
In a span of 12 years, each year is dedicated to a certain animal, that is why you will hear they say this is the year of Dragon, or Monkey and so on. To celebrate the spring festival, they beg pardon to those they mistreated or sinned against, they refrain from sinning, they forgive those who have wronged them, and they make new chances to know more people, to buy new clothes, to give gifts to others(this is mostly a red envelop packed with cash), cleaning up their houses, eating well, and do fireworks(this makes China the country that do fireworks in large numbers more than any country in the world.), they do fireworks to scare the evil spirits.
During this time, it is also a perfect time to introduce your lover to your parents, relatives and neighbours. Without that you might be annoyed by the questions posed to you by them, that is the reason why during this festival there's a booming business of "pretend-boyfriend/girlfriend for rent", this is a quick way to make money during this time for many youths.
Different ways to say "Happy new year" in Chinese~
Happy new year Xin nian kuaile
Happy new year, Congrats be wealthy Xin nian kuaile, gongshi facai
Happy Spring Festival Chunjie kuaile
Luck on the new year Xin nian Daji