How to Meet the Chinese New Year - Meet the Chinese New Year
The series of New Year's magic holidays in Russia begins long before December 31.Many of our compatriots start this festive extravaganza for Catholic Christmas, then everyone is celebrating the New Year, Orthodox Christmas, Old New Year, Baptism. It would seem that it's time to start working on the weekdays, but afterwards "knocking the hoof" The blue or green wooden horse is the talisman of the Chinese New Year coming on January 31, according to the eastern calendar.
New Year on the lunar calendar
The exotic ritual of the Chinese New Year's meeting is very attractive: it does not happen on a certain day, which is tied to the eastern calendar, but corresponds to the phases of the moon. The festive New Year's Eve comes at midnight after the day in which the second new moon happens after the winter solstice. This period for the Celestial calendar falls on days from January 20 to February 20 of each year. The New Year in China is called Chun Jie or the Spring Festival. In 2014 this Spring Festival falls on January 31st.
Unlike Europeans who try to please the talisman of the next year - Emerald Horse already on the night of December 31 to January 1, decorate the house with the figures of the "mistress of the year", and the table with dishes in her honor, the Chinese do not flirt with the horse, but try to observeannual traditions.
Tips
One of the most important conditions for Chun Jie's meeting is cleaning your home from old, annoying problems. Clutter, dust and dirt are enemies of Qi energy, they prevent its spread through your apartment. If the dwelling is not on the eve of the Chinese New Year to shine with purity, then the problems along with mud will pass from the old year to the new one. Just do not wash the floors with water with the addition of sea salt on the last day of the year.
The celebratory table should be "magnificent", breaking with quantity of dishes. However, considering that many of our compatriots spend all their savings on New Year's Eve and subsequent celebrations, we can limit ourselves to a sensible menu, and fill the rest of the table with mandarins( in China they symbolize wealth), sweets that will bring you financial independence.
Abundance of red color: in clothes, home decoration. The red lanterns are lit, a scarlet tablecloth is worn on the table, red balloons are inflated and hung around the rooms. The Chinese strictly follow the observance of this tradition, as according to legend only red color and noise scared the underwater dragon, who annually rose from the abyss and took several inhabitants of the Celestial Empire. The beggar monk, strung out red strips of paper at the entrance to the dwelling and launched lumbering glowing fireworks, forced the retreating monster to retreat. Since then, red color has become a symbol of purification and victory over the forces of darkness, and families, preparing for the main celebration of the year, paint the windows and doors in scarlet color, necessarily buy gifts and new clothes. New clothes guarantee their owners luck and prosperity in the coming year.
Residents of the country-culprit celebrations on numerous red posters with golden hieroglyphs write wishes of kindness, happiness and prosperity. They piously believe that golden symbolic inscriptions attract prosperity and prosperity to their lives. Not knowing the language, Europeans write their dreams with acrylic paint or gouache of golden color: "My family is happy", "Heaven is kind to us", "My world is a magnet of Success and Love" and so on. Then they hang them around the house or apartment and leave them hanging for the whole New Year's Eve.
To drive away evil spirits and attract luck to the Chinese New Year is taken with crackers or firecrackers. If you did not have to buy a "shooting" attribute, then it's enough to clap your hands or rummage with a tambourine.
The Chinese consider Chun Jie a family holiday. New Year's meal begins only when all members of a large family will gather and sit down at the table. If someone failed because of important circumstances to get to the home, then the Chinese family will necessarily leave an empty space and appliances.
A traditional dish on the New Year's tables in the Middle Kingdom - dumplings or dumplings. Recipes of their preparation, each Chinese family stores and transmits from generation to generation. Dumplings or dumplings from the Chinese symbolize silver ingots, and fish - prosperity, because in their language this word means "abundance".In addition to fish and dumplings on the New Year's table, the Chinese usually have pancakes stuffed with a mixture of unsweetened pork and vegetables. The ritual of the New Year's Eve: it is necessary to eat one pelmen and one mandarin at midnight, then luck and happiness will accompany you all 12 months.
After the feast in the New Year's Eve, the Chinese adults give an envelope to all children according to the scar, which necessarily contains money, which, according to legend, will bring a lot of joy and happiness to the owner. Previously, instead of "cash" envelopes gave necklaces out of hundreds of coins, which meant the owner's desire to live to a hundred years. These days these necklaces are sold in the Middle Kingdom, but they are more like souvenirs for tourists, since the coins are not real.
The exotic Chinese rite of the "first exit" is interesting because when the clock finally breaks through midnight, people take to the streets and do a dozen steps in a direction that will bring success and luck to their Zodiac sign.
Unusual Chinese tradition, existing more than three thousand years, to give everyone without exception for a pair of tangerines. Why two citrus fruits? From the ancient Chinese language the expression "two mandarins" translates as "gold."
You can get an idea of how to meet the Chinese New Year by visiting the Lantern Festival - a bright, unforgettable celebration of life that completes the New Year celebrations. A joyful disposition of spirit, a pure soul and thoughts are the guarantee of a pleasant meeting of the Chinese New Year and the fulfillment of good wishes!