China Travel 2.0

Chinese New year(Spring festival aka Chunjie 春节) is not the same holiday as the new year or Christmas or any other western holiday. It IS a huge long term holiday for Chinese. and there is always a different kind of food suit for the different date of Chunjie. You never believe the Chunijie begins from Layue 23 (腊月 the 12th month of lunar calender) until Zhengyue 25(正月,the 1st month of lunar calender).It is a one-month holiday. and almost everyday has a special meaning.

Let’s begin from Layue.

Layue 23: is the beginning of the Chunjie(someone believe the Chunjie begin from Layue Chu 8).  The people will thank for the 灶王爷（God of Stove） from the day, the family will placed a bowl of Jiaozi（饺子 dumpling）in front of  the 灶王爷 every day until Zhengyue 25. the following is a painting of 灶王爷 and the couplet.

Layue 24: family cleaning day. the parents will urged you to find the brooms and ready for the cleaning. the roof,the wall,the floor,the yard(if you have),the gate will be clean for the Chunjie. One of my western friends told me he had no idea what and why his Chinese girl friend doing some day, he thought she was not happy with him because she begin to clean the house without saying a word. Actually she was ready for the Chunjie, not because of him.

Layue 25: make tofu(豆腐). In the old days, the tofu was an important dish on the Chinese table. for the Chunjie, the tofu should made on Layue 25. but very few families make the tofu themselves now. acutally, tofu is very good for the health.

Layue 26: to buy some meat. even to buy some meat in a special day?  but Why? who knows, it became a rule in the Chunjie from our old old parents. Our old old parents don’t know why they do this either.

Layue 27: make steamed buns. but it is not the common buns. it is the mountain buns. and there are some calligonums  in the buns. just like the following picture took in Hebei province. it is popular in north china the family will make lots of setamed buns on that day. actually, steamed buns is popular in Hebei and Shandong and Henan province even nowdays.

Layue 28：paste the Nianhua（年画 or new year paintings）,there are different kinds of Nianhua. actually Nianhua is very popular in the whole China.

Layue 29: to buy some Baijiu, but nowdays, there are wines and beers appear in the table of Chinese family. but in the old days, there was only Baijiu（Baijiu in the north China, the rice Jiu in the south China）.

Layue 30 or CN New Year eve(大年三十): sometimes, there is no Layue 30 in the lunar calender. so the Layue 29 will be the CN new year eve. the whole nation will celebrate the Spring festival, and will stay up to the mid night for the new year. in the midnight, you can hear all of the fireworks will blurst in the same time. It seems only the fireworks can bring you to the new year and the happy and the good fortune.  In all Chinese mind and heart,they will back to his/her parents home as a son/daughter before the Chu 1 coming. So, it is common to see the busy train and the air flight during the CN new year.

Chu 1(大年初一): New Year. Wow. It is the whole new year day.  Yeah,New year begin from the day.

From Chu 1 to Chu 10, every day has a special meaning. Try to find the interesting meaning of it.中国人过去和现在的一些地方在过春节时有诸多禁忌，主要为了保平安，在来年事事顺心，万事如意。由初一至初十的禁忌有：
初一：鸡日，旧时在元旦贴画鸡辟邪祈福（鸡谐音吉ji） 。
初二：狗日，出外拜年或祭祖。
初三：羊日，易生口角，不宜拜年。
初四：猪日，祭财神。
初五：牛日，”破五”，可打破诸多禁忌：”送穷五”初一至初四的垃圾不能倒掉，免倒财气，初 五的垃圾视为穷土，倒掉就送穷出门。
初六：马日，送神的日子，把除夕送来的财神纸马烧掉，店开始复业。
初七：人日，人的生日，又是聚餐吃喝，又有放花炮烟花，启烟火的习俗，是火的生日。
初八：谷日，诸星下界，因此要祭星，寺庙往往在这天设坛祭星 。
初九：天爷生日，玉皇大帝诞辰，举行盛大的祭天活动。
初十：石头生日，凡是磨、碓、碾等石制用具都忌动用，叫石不动，甚至烧香祭拜石具。

Zhengyue 15:tomorrow will be Zhengyue 15, it is an important holiday in Chunjie.You will see lots of lanterns, but it is called Yuanxiao Jie(元宵节) . every family will eat a kind of food-元宵.

Zhengyue 25:few people know this holiday. it is called 打囤 or 填仓. almost the same meaning. the host will paint a granary on the ground with ash.OMG, the CN new year holiday will finished finally.

 It is only a few contents of the CN new year customs above, it is obviously we can see the images of farmers life and work. they have a wonderful CN new year every year. and they enjoy it everyday with different food and different customs.  but the poor people in the town or big cities have only one thing left-the fireworks all the time. Let the people in the town have the same wonderful CN new year as the farmers before the fireworks exploded in his hands. But it is a fact, almost all the Chinese traditional customs preserved in the country and the farmers hands, where the Chinese traditional culture preserved as well. But the people in the big cities don’t care too much about folk customs or the farmers and they don’t have a long holiday either.

a popular Nursery of Chunjie (in Chinese)
小孩小孩你别馋，
过了腊八就是年，
腊八粥，
喝几天，
哩哩啦啦二十三，
二十三糖瓜粘，
二十四扫房子，
二十五磨豆腐，
二十六去割肉，
二十七蒸枣山，
二十八贴年画，
二十九去买酒，
三十铜钱饺子和拦门棍，
大年初一扭一扭。

Tags: chunjie, traditional, 传统, 春节