Chinese New Year Part 1: from the outside looking in

Chun jie kuai le! Happy New Year!

There is so much substance to Chinese New Year that this blog posts comes in two installments. The first is a brief outline of traditions, customs, and my observations as a foreigner. This post is “From the Outside Looking In,” describing Chinese New Year from an outside observer. The second post is from the “Inside” and is a description of holiday time spent with Chinese friends and how this changed my perspective of Chinese New Year.

The lunar new year marks the largest holiday in China. February 14 was the beginning of the celebration, which will last for 15 days and will officially end with the Lantern Festival (the first day in the new year that a full moon can be seen). The lunar year is often noted for the 12-year animal zodiac associated with it. This year is the Year of the Tiger – the perfect fit for a Mizzou Fan!

A List of the Animals in the Zodiac.

Animal	Branch	New Year dates
鼠 Rat	子 Zǐ	February 19, 1996	February 7, 2008
牛 Ox	丑 Chǒu	February 7, 1997	January 26, 2009
虎 Tiger	寅 Yín	January 28, 1998	February 14, 2010
兔 Rabbit	卯 Mǎo	February 16, 1999	February 3, 2011
龍 Dragon	辰 Chén	February 5, 2000	January 23, 2012
蛇 Snake	巳 Sì	January 24, 2001	February 10, 2013
馬 Horse	午 Wǔ	February 12, 2002	January 31, 2014
羊 Sheep	未 Wèi	February 1, 2003	February 19, 2015
猴 Monkey	申 Shēn	January 22, 2004	February 8, 2016
雞 Rooster	酉 Yǒu	February 9, 2005	January 28, 2017
狗 Dog	戌 Xū	January 29, 2006	February 16, 2018
豬 Pig	亥 Hài	February 18, 2007	February 5, 2019

Traditions:

• Giving hong bao (or red envelopes) with money in them to the children
• Decorating the doorframe with banners for “a good life” and “health, peace, and wealth”
• Hanging red lanterns in the trees and building entranceways
• Cleaning house before the new year, in order to “sweep out the bad luck”

Red is the predominant color used for Chinese New Year because the word for red is the same word for “prosperous” (just a different tone). It also signifies “truth, virtue, and sincerity.”

Our Holiday Table

The Holiday Table

The Holiday Table is currently sporting all kinds of Chinese New Year decorations. You’ll notice the decorations are bright and gaudy (as my friends would say, “it looks like Chinese New Year puked all over the place” – meaning, the decorations are way overdone). Interestingly enough, most decorations here are cheesy and kind of ridiculous looking.Everything is bright and shiny and covered in glitter (how ironic that I’m a Theta).

The banner on the left side of the table says “May you have peace and happiness this year” and the banner on the right side of the table says, ”May you have good health and a long life.” (Notice the sticky notes… Jianjuan had to translate for me, so I wrote it on sticky notes and posted it by the appropriate character. Being illiterate is cumbersome – like when I was out shopping for decorations and I didn’t know what any of them said, so I just bought decorations that had different characters on them, hoping some of them would be appropriate for Chinese New Year : )

The character that is centered is the main character used for the new year. It is on most of the decorations and means, “A good life; all things good.”

And the cartoon tiger on the bottom-ish left, is a staple decoration since it is the Year of the Tiger. (isn’t it interesting that they use such a childish cartoon to represent a Tiger? Very different from the Western way of representing a Tiger)

My Observations

I loved the buzz that took over the city a few days before the new year. Holiday spirit infected everyone, and you could feel the excitement as the holiday drew close.

I had to stock up on food and water because all of the stores closed down for the week. Literally, the streets have been completely empty and all the shops for blocks and blocks are closed. It’s kind of awesome; I’ve been walking down the middle of the street because there isn’t any traffic, and I have had a seat every time on the bus. Now that’s a miracle!

Fireworks w/an American Flag on them, with a Chinese Character in the center... weird.

Fireworks. I hate them. I’ve never been a huge fan of fireworks; but after experiencing Chinese New Year in China, I would be okay with never seeing a firecracker again. The Chinese believe that fireworks are good luck and that they scare away ghosts and spirits. 5 million people shooting off fireworks is less than pleasant. For 48 hours straight, there was a constant popping of a lit firecracker (not the pretty ones that light up the sky, but the blackcats that explode and make your eardrums feel like they’re bleeding). At one point, I was walking down the street listening to my iPod, but the fireworks were so loud that I couldn’t hear my music, all I heard was the banging of the fireworks (once again, my headphones were in my ears, and I couldn’t hear them!).

Many people will spend an entire month’s salary on fireworks, and it is often a competition to see who can shoot off the most fireworks. (which may not be that different from home on the 4^th of July). However, the main difference between fireworks at home and fireworks in China is the lawlessness that exists here. At home, there are official firework displays; but not here. My friends and I went to a city park on the eve of Chinese New Year, when most fireworks are shot off. Everyone goes to the park and shoots off their own fireworks. The park is so crowded, and people shoot off HUGE fireworks while other people stand ten feet away. SO DANGEROUS! It is like dodging land mines because you don’t know where the next firework will come from and where it is aiming. At one point, someone lit a firework directly in front of my friends and I, so we jumped backwards to get out of the way. Unbeknownst to us, the guy behind us was simultaneously lighting a firecracker, so we actually jumped back to get away from one, but almost got hit by another. It was so scary! Oh and watching all the children walk around freely almost gave me a heart attack, I was so nervous they would get hurt.

The worst part of the fireworks, however, is the fact that many blackcats are lit in the stairwells of apartment buildings.People believe that lighting fireworks in the stairwells will scare away the evil spirits. The banging is so loud from the reverberations in the stairwells that the windows shake.

Please enjoy this first hand look at the crazy fireworks (I apologize for the poor video quality; I readily admit that I am not a photographer).

....to be continued with Part 2