The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West.

The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later than the Gregorian calendar. 

It originated in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the people's sacrifice to gods and ancestors 

at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one.

Strictly speaking, the Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of the 12th lunar month and will last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next year. 

Of them, the most important days are Spring Festival Eve and the first three days. Most people will have a week off , thus, this time is known as golden week.

Talk about some Spring Festival Traditions:

1. Paper Cut （贴窗花）

After the thoroughly clean up, people will paste paper-cut decorations on the windows and doors. Paper-cuts, usually with auspicious patterns, 

give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival and express the good wishes of Chinese people looking forward to a good life. 

It is common for Chinese to paste the character “fu（福）”, big and small, on walls, doors and doorposts around the houses. 

“Fu（福）” shows people’s yearning toward a good life. Some people’s yearning toward a good life. 

Some people even invert the character “Fu（福）” to signify that blessing has arrived because “inverted” is a homonym for “arrive” in Chinese.

2. Family Reunion Dinner （年夜团圆饭）

The Spring Festival is a time for the Chinese to have family reunion, on Chinese New Year’s Eve (Chu Xi), 

the whole family must sit at the table to eat the New Year’s Supper together. 

This meal is usually made from scratch with the entire family working together, and this meal is usually 

the most sumptuous meal of the year. In the New Year’s Supper, 

it is essential that some dishes contain the family wishes for the New Year.

年糕，or the New Year’s Cake, is very common in Southern China, it Is made of sticky rice. 

In Chinese, niangao sounds like “getting higher year by year”. In Chinese people’s mind, the higher you are, 

the more prosperous your business is.

饺子，or the stuffed Dumpling, is a very common Northern Chinese Dish, Chinese dumplings look like silver ingots. 

Legend has it that the more dumplings you eat during New Year celebration, the more money you can make in the New Year. 

When making these dumplings, coins and pennies are usually put into selected few, those lucky family members that happen to eat 

those special dumplings are believed to have special good fortune in the upcoming year.

3. Red Packet/ Lucky Money（红包/压岁钱）

Children love Spring Festival because they can receive red packet! A red packet is simply a red envelope with lucky money in it, 

which symbolizes luck and wealth. In traditional Chinese cultural, red is considered a lucky color, 

red packet is believed to ward off evial spirits and to bring good fortune to the receiver. 

Traditionally, older generations give the red packet to the younger generation. 

Nowadays, this practice extends to close friends, neighbors, 

and even some companies give away year- end bonus in the red packets.

See you next time to talk more about the traditions of the Spring Festival! (*^__^*)