Chinese New Year: 2010 is the Year of the Metal Tiger

by: Viktoria Lukas
2010-01-08

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The Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, is a significant holiday in the Chinese culture. Celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar, it is also the longest festivity in the Lunar Calendar.

The origin of the Chinese New Year is centuries old and is celebrated in countries and cultures where the Chinese have widespread influence. Apart from Mainland China, countries with Chinese natives as part of their population like the Philippines, Singapore, Nepal and Vietnam celebrate Chinese New Year. As a matter of fact, even Japan was part of the festivities before the Japanese adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1873.

The Chinese New Year is filled with wonderful centuries-old traditions. For Chinese families, this is the time of the year to thoroughly clean their homes to sweep away all the ill-fortunes of the old year and to welcome the good ones. Windows and doors of Chinese homes are adorned with paper-cuts with popular designs signifying ‘happiness’, ‘wealth’ and ‘longevity’.

The Chinese New Year feast is always sumptuous and must always include fish and chicken dishes. An elaborate vegetarian meal is also served which includes ‘fat choy’ which is a type of black algae. A Chinese New Year dumpling which resembles gold ingots are also popular along with uncut noodles for longevity, mandarin oranges and of course, the famous New Year rice pudding called nian gao or tikoy.

Small Chinese children welcome New Year with anticipation for money-filled red envelopes or ‘ang pao’. These red envelopes are also known as Ya Sui Quian which literally means ‘the money used to suppress the evil spirit’.

The money in these red envelopes must be of even numbers, as odd numbers are associated with money given during funerals. Chocolate coins may also be given instead of cash.

A Chinese New Year celebration will not be complete without the festive fireworks display and the dragon and lion dances accompanied by loud drums. These loud articles of festivities serve to evict evil spirits and are popular even days before the celebrations.

The year 2010 marks the celebration of the Metal Tiger. Tiger Years are third in the cycle and falls every twelfth year. It starts on February 14, 2010 and ends on February 2, 2011. The Tiger is the third sign in the Chinese zodiac cycle, and is a sign of courage. The tiger, a spirited and fiery warrior is admired by the ancient Chinese as the sign that keeps away the three main tragedies of a household: fire, thieves and phantoms.

The Chinese people’s rich culture is evident in their many celebrations and festivities. Regarded as one of the most ancient and beautiful cultures in the world, the Chinese culture, reflected in an elaborate display of festivities during their most important holiday—the Chinese New Year—is respected and adapted by many society throughout the world.

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Related Topics: christmas/new year |