Other fun facts about Chinese New Year

Several days before the new year the house is thoroughly cleaned, it is said that you need to sweep out the last year and welcome in the new year. 

It is estimated that a sixth of the world celebrates Chinese New Year.

On CNY eve fireworks are set off all over the Shanghai and it is believed to be the biggest non organized display on the planet.

This year starts the year of the snake, the snake has a mixed reputation in China, it is associated with wisdom, beauty and intelligence but also pride and anger.

This year on the annual New Year's Eve gala on TV, the producers were order to make the show a more low-key affair, in the wake of the new leadership's recent crackdown on corruption and official extravagance.

Seeing  RED - The color red and other bright colors is commonly worn throughout the CNY. It was once believed that red could scare away evil spirits and bad fortune. Today it represents prosperity, fortune and good luck, and it shows happiness. 

Wearing new clothes from head to toe, symbolizes a new beginning in the new year.

This is my 50th post!  Over the past 7 months the blog has seen over 1400 page views, last month there was  168 page views. It has been fun to do. It has forced me to take lots of pictures and do a lot of research. The pictures has helped in remembering the many things we have been lucky enough to see and do and the research has helped me to better understand another part of the world and its people. All is good.

 I would like to thank everyone for visiting. I am very happy that I started it and I hope you have enjoyed looking at it. Below are some misc. pictures of CNY.

around CNY you find tables and tables of people selling red underware

checking out some lucky undies 

ME always gets stopped by the Chinese for photo ops 

a money tree, a cross between the hong bao money envelops and a x-mass tree?

I like this shot with the outline of the buildings in the background

the year of the snake on the full moon of the Lantern Festival

fireworks over the Huangpu river

The Lantern Festival

On the 15th day of the Chinese New Year (CNY) is the Lantern Festival. This marks the end of the CNY and is the first full moon in the first lunar month. The Lantern Festival has over 2000 years of history, there are many traditions and customs that go along with the day, including watching lanterns, guessing lantern riddles, folk dances and songs, eating yuanxiao and of course more fireworks.

During the Han Dynasty, (206+ BC), Buddhism flourished in China, so in order to popularize Buddism, one of the emperors gave an order to light lanterns to show respect for Budda on the 15th day of the first lunar month. During the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties the lighting of lanterns became a tradition for the Chinese people. Today red lanterns can be seen hanging across streets, in houses and stores and in many public buildings around China. Lanterns now come in many shapes and types.

Beginning in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) guessing riddles became a big part of the Lantern Festival. People would write riddles on pieces of paper and paste them on colorful lanterns and have visitors guess the riddles. If you know the answer to a riddle, you would pull the piece of paper from the lantern and let the organizers verify the answer. Gifts were give to the people who gave the rights answer. Today riddles are printer on the lanterns and numbered. If you know the answer you go the organizers and tell them the answer and the number and if right you receive a gift.

Yuanxiao is a sweet sticky rice or sticky rice floor treat that is filled with either sugar, rose petals, sesame, or sweetened bean paste. This popular treat is round in shape and means reunion, harmony and happiness. Family members sit together and eat the yuanxiao and enjoy the lanterns, fireworks and the full moon.

In Shanghai, the place to be is Yu Garden in the heart of old town. On the day of the Lantern festival the roads around the old town are closed and there is a fee to enter  into the Yu Garden market place. The area becomes filled with families looking at the lanterns and eating the sweets. Below are some of the pictures I took to try to capture festival.  

street scene in old city

same street night view

front of Yu Garden market place

in Yu garden, square in front of tea house

riddles with numbers

floats depicting legends of CNY

click to enlargen

alleyways winding around Yu Garden

families enjoying the lanterns 

all shapes and styles

guess the riddle

it goes on and on

year of the snake

more alleyways 

crowds enjoying the full moon

the main square

Langhua Temple

Langhau Temple is the oldest, built in 242 AD, the largest, most authentic and complete ancient temple in Shanghai. It is the most active, and is famous for the Longhau Pagoda and the ringing of the bell ceremony,  in the Bell Tower. The original temples were destroyed several times by different wars, but were rebuilt in the mid 1800's to the original architectural design of the Song Dynasty monastery.

Within this 5 acre compound  there are 5 main halls that house many different Buda statues, important treasures, antiques, and artifacts. Between the halls are courtyards built in the style of the traditional Buddhist symmetry per the Chinese concept of beauty.

Why am I telling you all of this? Besides being visited by many people during the Chinese New Year, one of the side buildings is the 3 storied Bell Tower. There is a famous Evening Bell-Striking Ceremony on New Years eve to welcome in the new year and bring good luck. The copper bell stands over 6 feet high, 40" wide and weighs 11,023 pounds.

The Longhua Pagoda is the best, well-known historic pagoda still standing within Shanghai. It has the traditional octagonal floor layout, and the size of its 7 stories decrease in size from the bottom to the top. It is decorated with balconies, banisters and turned up eaves. Bells hang from the corners of the eaves and ring on windy days.

There is also the annual  Longhua Temple Fair held here since the Ming Dynasty , (mid 1300's), on the third day of the third month of the Lunar Calendar. According to the local legend the dragon, (Longhua means Luster of the Dragon) visits the temple to help grant the peoples wishes, this also coincides with the blossoming of the peach trees in the Longhau Park. 

burning incense 

one of 5 temples

The Grand Hall of the Great Sage

click on  to enlarge

statues of the 500 Luohans

Lantern decorated walkway

close up

The Heavenly King Hall

Longhua Pagoda 

About the Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year (CNY) starts on the afternoon of new years eve and is one of the most important days of the 15 daylong celebration. In China over 200 million people travel home to be with their families, it is considered the biggest mass human migration on Earth. For many families it is the only time during the year that the entire family will be together. One of the highlights is food and on this day a huge feast is served. When family members can not return, a place setting is set in their honor. Dumplings, fish and hard liquor is what is served this day. Nearly all families sit around the dinner table and while eating, they watch the state television annual  New Year's Gala variety show, featuring the most famous Chinese performers. This year Celine Dion sang her song, My Heart Will Go On, from the movie Titanic, this is one of two English songs that are well known in China, the other is Happy Birthday.

Around midnight fireworks are set off which last for several hours. Interestingly this year the state authorities in Beijing and Shanghai and some of the other large cities asked the big companies not to set off fireworks this year because of the dangerous high levels of air pollution recorded over the past two months this winter. They also asked the people in these cities to set off fewer fireworks too.

We have a very good view of the city and from the 31st floor of our apartment could see and hear fireworks being set off all over the city which lasted for several hours. After an hour or so the sky darkened, you could see a layer of smoke lingering low in the sky. In some cases the fireworks got lost in their own smoke. I visited the US consulate site that monitories the air quality on an hourly bases and the air quality spiked for several hours around midnight. For one hour it reached over 500+ which is off the ratings guide.  See link,      

http://shanghai.usembassy-china.org.cn/airmonitor.html

   

The second day of the CNY is known as the "beginning of the year", it is when the married daughters visit their birth parents and take them out for lunch or dinner. Traditionally married daughters do not have the opportunity to visit with their parents throughout the year.

Day 4 is the money day and it is common for elders to give children gifts, of money. Money is slid into a red envelop, called hong bao which are decorated with new year's wishes. We were instructed to give these hong bao envelopes to the service people who we see regularly. So our driver, the house keeper, the two young women in the lobby and the doormen all received these red envelopes

.

Day 5 is the God of Wealth's birthday and another big fireworks night to get the attention of Guan Yu to ensure his favor and good fortune for the new year.

Day 6 to 10 is lots of family time and going out to visit relatives and friends. It was great to walk around Shanghai and see groups of families walking around, eating out, shopping, and enjoying themselves.

Day 11 and 12 is when the visiting is done and it's time to invite family and friends over for dinner

Day 13 is a break in the lavish meals. You are suppose to eat simple on this day.

Day 14 is time to prepare for the 15th day, the Lantern Festival, the last day of the celebration and the first full moon. Chinese light lanterns, play riddle games and eat sticky rice balls.

more on the CNY in the next post

small display of fireworks for sale

Yuyuan Gardens decorations 

view of old town Shanghai

over head lanterns 

tea house in Yuyaun Gardens with CNY decorations 

very common CNY house decoration 

market stalls selling CNY decoration

click on to enlarge

Year of the Snake

traditional CNY decorations 

hong bao money envelopes, you see these everywhere

Chinese New Year

After a 3 week trip in January to Philly to visit with my parents and family, I am now back in Shanghai. This weekend, the 9th of February, is the start of the Lunar New Year  - better known as the Chinese New Year (CNY). For thousands of years most Asian countries have celebrated the Lunar New Year. This holiday is the longest and most important festival in the Chinese calendar.

The CNY is celebrated at the second new moon after the winter solstice. The new year starts on the first day of the new moon and runs for 15 days ending when the moon is its brightest with The Lantern Festival. In China many people  take weeks off from work to prepare for and celebrate the New Year. It has become a yearly reminder for the people of the cultural identity and family heritage with customs and traditions that date back for thousands of years. 

It is the biggest travel period in world with tens of millions of people returning to their home towns to celebrate with their families. It is a celebration of family and focuses on well wishes and blessings for a happy and prosperous new year. During this time the family shares in the many rituals and traditions.

Several of these traditions are the decorating and dressing with the color red and setting off fireworks. Long ago according to Chinese legend a terrible creature called "Nian" (also the Character for "year") came every year to attack the people and their livestock. This creature could not be destroyed until one day they discovered that Nian was afraid of three things, noise, the sun and the color red. At the end of the year people made a bonfire, painted their houses red and set off hundreds of firecrackers. Nian was so afraid that it ran away and never troubled the people again. From this time going forward the color red and fireworks has been a big part of the New Years celebration.

The legend of the "Kitchen God" also has a big part in the celebration. According to ancient Chinese beliefs the family stove housed the Kitchen God known as Zao Jun, one of the oldest gods worshipped in China. The god resided year-round in the stove and on the last week of the last month of the year the Kitchen God would ascend to the heavens to give the annual report about the family to the Jade Emperor. His report would determine the family's fortunes for the coming year, so it was important to give him a good send-off. The send-off included offerings of sweet cakes, preserved fruits and sweet wine so he would only report sweet things to say about the family. This legend of the Kitchen God has become an important and colorful figure in the holiday festivities. It is now associated with days and days of many wonderful meals, large family get togethers and many wishes of luck and good fortune.

There is a lot of buzz this week when walking around the city, most people are in an festive mood, the food stores and super markets are packed with all kinds of specialty food items and gift baskets. I will keep you posted as we take part in the Chinese New Year's celebration.