Jianhua !! "Chinese Spring Festival" ??

I hear that it is coming soon.. :) Please oh Please tell us about it...
(I can't wait to hear what he has to say) !!!!

WG,

Do you mean Chinese New Year? That's on Feb. 12th. Not sure about the festival though.

Yes the New Year is coming too, It maybe Feb 12th.?.Now the
festival...we will have to wait till he gets up....in a couple more hours...Gee, I can hear the zzzzz's, can't you?
Soon---13 hrs ahead of us.... !!!! (:

Oh, do tell us what happens at the festival! I'm sure fun is had by all!

Hello every one!
First of all, please permit me to express my thankfulness to WantabeGardener who starts this thread for us to share in here on the Chinese Spring Festival culture .yeah,in chinese we call it 'chunjie'(spring festival).in fact it just means the Chinese New Year.just as Tim says,this year's festival is on February 12,two days before the Valentine Day.the Chinese Spring Festival is the greatest festival of year.for this traditional folk festival,schools,factories,enterprises and government offices will have a two or three weeks' holiday.
i would like to chat with all of you on this topic.please ask your questions and i will respond them one by one.
Thanks!

A Brief to the Festival:
The spring Festival is the most important traditional festival with the longest history,the grandest occasion for all Chinese nationalities.All the Chinese officially have two weeks or so's holiday.it marks the beginning of the lunar year,and it is also called 'Nianjie' or the year Festival.
A week ago before the festival,every house hold is busy with preparations for the festival.shops are decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers.people joyously bustle about with the Spring Festival Shopping,such as fire crackers for kids...the whole nation is full of festival atmosphere.
For thousands of years numberous customs have been decorated with the Spring Festival,such as cleaning the house,sticking New year pictures,pasting Spring Festival couplets on the gate posts or door panels before the Spring Festival,staying up late or all night on the Eve of the Spring Festival.family get-together supper characterised with large meals and display of fireworkspaying New Year's calls;enjoying Chinese dumplings,lion dances,dragon dances,and stilt-walking,visiting flower-market,and so on.
The highlight of the activities concentrated on the Eve of the Spring Festival.every house hold will paste Spring Festival couplets on gate posts.it is the custom for people to stay up late and set off firecrakers at midnight.the member of a family used to get together to offer sacrifices to the ancestors.then the whole family eat the dumplings and New Year's cake.however,the old customs are dying off .instead ,our TV stations produce all sorts of the Spring Festival Eve entertainment and the whole family sit in front of the TV set enjoying shows on the screen.when the clock strikes 12 at midnight,hundreds of firecrakers are set off and fireworks dispalyed in the sky ,usering in the lunar New Year.
During the holiday,people visit relatives and friends,and exchange New Year's greetings.besides,there are many entertainments with local features held alll over the country.

Sounds like fun can I come over and play...???? Looks like your"Spring Festival" is like all of ours dressed in one...What a good time you will have...What kind of Flowers will hang on your front door posts or panels? What are couplets??? vases??? Containers???? made of what...Your weather right now???? Please tell us more. (Wantabe)

Sounds like alot of fun to me!

I think this is the Year of the Horse.

Year of the "Horse"....My year is the year of the "Cow" Dh is year of the "Bull", now how does that work...Who says what year is what the animal???? Jianhua is year of the "Rabbit".....what makes your year different than mine....???? Please tell us about that.....!!!!!

It's based on 12 zodia signs, each animal is given a year, and repeats every 12 years.
GW, Cow or Ox? WHich means you were born either 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, or 1997.

Here's a good site to check out the calendar http://www.new-year.co.uk/chinese/calendar.htm. Click on the zodia sign to see what its meaning.

check this url for other Chinese festivals & other info... http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/CFestivals.htm be sure to click each festival to learn more. http://www.sandiego-online.com/forums/chinese/htmls/holidays.htm

This message was edited Wednesday, Feb 6th 1:29 AM

Hello,
Yeah,every nation has its own special culture.when east meets west,we will have a lot to share.(note:here i only want to chat with you about the chinese culture.i do not want to relate it to politics and religon.)
This time i'd like to say something about chinese animal years.
Yeah,as Tim says above,chinese animal years is based on 12 zodia signs,each animal is given a year,and repeats every 12 years.for example,1990 is a horse year,and 12 years later ,ie.2002 it is
a horse year too.
Here is a list of the chinese animal years.from this list you will know or caculate what animal you belong to.
Rat:72,84,96
Ox:73,85,97
Tiger:74,86,98
Hare:75,87,99
Dragon:76,88,02
Serpent:77,89,01
Horse:78,90,02
Sheep:79,91,03
Monkey:80,92,04
Cock:81,93,05,
Dog:82,94,06
Boar:83,95,07
And according to old books,a person who born in the year a certain animal year,he or she will have some characteristics of the animal.for example,a person born in 1980 is a monkey.so he or she is clever,smart,kind,curious,learned,adventuresome.he is tired of marraiage,and fond of lonelyness...
Whether or not right about this connection --i have no idea--just copy it from a book.):

It's the equivalent of the western astrology, only it's based on year, not the month.

Oh when give the animal sign, a person age can be determined. :)

What is the year of your Chinese New Year???? Ours 2002...and yours?????

Some says this is the year 4699 by Chinese Calendar.

Let the party begin.....we want to join.....! I don't care what year it is.....!!!! Alway ready for a good time.......Tell us more...... Wantabe.."part of" Hey everyone...I am glad I choose this sign in name...I can say ....Wantabe....this and that.....endless..right.????

Tim,
yeah,the chinese animal signs are somewhat similar to your western astrology.see, when a person's year,month and day is decided,his or her fate will be fixed.to tell you the truth, i do not believe in it.and i do not know much about the so called horoscope.but anyway, it is a kind of traditional culture.
okay,i will turn the topic on the festival.here i'd like to say something about how chinese spring festival comes into being.
My father who is a retired teacher once told me an old story about the chinese spring festival.
In China we also call this festival as "nianjie"(means festival for the coming of spring).
According the the old story,Nian was a kind of monsters.they would come out at the Eve of the beginning of the new year to eat people.so in order to scare the monsters away,people would have bamboo stems burning all night long.with time pass by,people had crakers instead of bamboo stems.and thus the tradition passed on from generation to gernation.
Now the festival has really become an eating one.just a week or so before the festival people will go shopping and purchase all kinds of things crazily for the festival especially things for eating.and for me for this festival merely the pork i have bought about 20 kilograms,let alone other things.but to poor people this festival means nothing to them.they just have thier hair cut completely without leaving a single.thus they also pass the nian.
well, so much for now.see ya then!

MavieRose,
Thanks so much for your great hyperlink on Chinese Festivals.please go and have a lookthrough at the chinese valentine day and other festivals,my gardening friends.:(

Thank U Jianhua, i will. although regardless of celebration has been commercialize these days, Enjoy Dear Garden friend.

Jianhua...I would rather you tell us, what is happening...first hand...MaVieRose, your links are very good, thank you...(again)....what kinds of flowers do you place at your doors..What day does the Spring Festival begin.If Feb 12th is new years does Feb 13th,??? starts the festival? Does your wife, start cooking now...?? Do you have friends over, all the time. Dropping in and out..? What day does the Fire works begin??? Where do you go to see the fireworks??? on your roof? Does your village, display the fireworks?...Who gets in the Dragoon and weaves around the street? What is shown on the TV....???

MavieRose,Tim ,Morning Glory ,WantabeGardener and et al,
Thanks for sharing with me the traditional chinese spring festival(Feb.12 China time).
Now answer some of your questions:
About the festival flowers--During the festival almost every family will place some flowers in their houses,especially in their sittingrooms to add the festival atmosphere.
those who are wealthy will buy some expensive ones,such as Clivias,Camellias,Dracaena fragrans,Sago cycases,poinsettias.and those who are not wealthy will buy some little flowers to decorate their houses,such as primroses,narcissuses,melon-foliage daisies,marigolds,or some plastic flowers.but for the southers it is necessary for every family to have a pot of flowering prum and a little orange tree with many fruits on it .the prum and orange mean good luck and fate in the new year.for me(i live in the central part),i have some flowers of my own,so there is no need to buy them in the market.i have put two big sagos,one little narcissus,and two winter sweets in my sitting room waiting for my friends and relatives to visit.

Jianhua,

as far as memory, allows me to recall, Chinese neighbors in the P.I. do a lot of cooking several days before the festive day come. on the day of Chinese New Year, i do remember them bringing Chrysanthemums, roses, & food early in the morning to the grave site of family long gone. later in the day is when they invite neighbors to the festive table they have, filled with citrus fruits and lots of Chinese food. in the evening they do have nice show of fireworks they share with neighbors. those fireworks are lovely =)! some of their families also have some dragon puppets they perform on the streets as they light those fireworks. is that tradition, still exist where u are?

some of the Chinese businemen i knew do send me some big baskets filled with fruits, candies, and wines. the good old days i miss from the old country ;)!

Hello again,
Today is December 29,2001 Chinese lunar calendar(ie.February 10,2002 A.D).and the day after tomorrow will be the spring festival(chinese new year).Now the festival atmosphere is becoming thicker and thicker.
Behold!every family is busy putting up the year pictures on the gate and doors or frying and cooking stuffs for the festival.and the happinest should be the children.wearing their new clothes,some are running round the streets ,some are jumping ropes,some are playing glass-ball games,some are singing rhymes,some are having crackers.for them, the festival not only means there is not any homework to do,there is long free time to play ,but also means that they will get a lot of chinese bucks from their elders.on the Eve of the festival,children's parents will present their kids some yashuichian(money for the new year)and on the new year's day all the children will hop from house to house to their grandparents and their uncles and aunts to koutou before their elders,saying 'happy new year'.and the elders will present them some small money for their greetings.some days later when school begins,the children will gather together to show off their harvest.the one who gets the most bucks will be king of the class.
Well, i just mentioned of the year pictures.posting year pictures is necessary for every family for the festival.the pictures are red(stand for hapiness,luck) with lucky chinese words and designs on them.a cock with the the words"wanshidaji",means all are lucky.a fish with the words "niannian youyu" means life is richer and richer.
the pictures with a pair of ancient general figures means keeping evils outside the houses.some who have taxies or trucks for transporation will label the pictures with such words as "rixingwanli"(running ten-thousand miles each day),or "churupingan"(coming or going safely).
Tomorrow will be the Eve.it can be said that this is the greatest occasion of the festival.early on this day all the families have prepared the dumplings(main food) and all the dishes made well for the Eve feast.
The dishes must be included in chicken(luck),fish(rich),tofu(happiness),lotus stems(continuation),...plenty...
When evening comes the dishes and wine are placed on the table and all the family members will sit round to have the great meal.when the meal is over,according to the tradition,
all the members will sit up for the year,chatting,playing cards,playing Majiang,or something else.but now wonderful programs on CCTV have taken the place of the tradition.by then all the members will sit before the TV watching.in the past few years' programs on the Eve,i rememberd,were comic ones.the first program was the chorus on unity of 56 nationalities--all the girls and boys wearing colorful nationalitial clothes singing and dancing happily.and then
was the Beijing Opera--a man who acted as a girl singing with beautiful actions made people applause. and then popular singers sang some love songs.and when you felt a little tired,wow the big drum team appeared on the stage--the beating sound of the drums would once again to rise up your spirits.and then folk dances.and then Shaolin Gongfu--,many youngsters wearing warrior's clothes,made all kinds of actions which made people say"hao,hao"(good).and then came the comics--which were highly appauled by people--
they de people laugh out their tears out.thus the TV programs went on and on,till the clocks strike 12 o'clock.
Yeah, the really spring festival moment comes at last.people will go outside to light their long strings of crackers,announcing to the universe that we have gotten a new year.the noise will last for quite some time without stopping.and you can sell the thick gunpowder flavor.it seems as if a universe war is breaking out,heheeh. really the noise can make your ears humming and humming.we are expecting this year's programs will be better.by the way,friends who show interests in the CCTV evening party please hit the website<http://www.cctv.com>.it will be open
all over the world through internet.Time:China time Feb.11,02;--8:30 p.m.(US East Time:7:30 a.m)(to be continued)