Chinese celebrate arrival of Year of the Tiger

By Lanting Liu

2022 is the Year of the Tiger in China. The tiger is known as the “king of beasts” and symbolises power. People who were born in 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022 belong to the tiger which is one of the 12 Zodiacs and will have good luck for the whole year.

February 1st was the first day of Chinese New Year. Chinese people have celebrated the Spring Festival for more than 4,000 years. Because of the difference between the Chinese lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar of the West, the Spring Festival usually falls on a day in January or February of the Gregorian calendar.

The Spring Festival is the most important, solemn, and most lively and distinctive traditional festival in China. Influenced by traditional Chinese culture, people go home as much as possible to reunite with their family during the Spring Festival, expressing their hopes for the coming year and their best wishes for life.

There are many interesting customs during Chinese New Year. Here are some:

Stick-on spring festival couplets

Chinese people will stick Spring Festival couplets on doors and window grilles for decoration. Different from the paper-cut decorations during Christmas in Cyprus, Chinese must use red paper to add a festive atmosphere.

Stay up all night on New Year’s Eve and “sit out the year”

On the eve of the Lunar New Year, every room should be brightly lit all night to welcome the arrival of the new year. The whole family gathers, eats the New Year’s Eve dinner, watches the new year’s gala on television and keeps a vigil all night, to drive away all evil spirits and diseases, and to look forward to a happy and prosperous year. Dumplings are indispensable in the New Year’s Eve dinner and dumplings are shaped like gold ingots, symbolizing prosperity in the coming year.

New year greetings

New Year’s greetings are a traditional Chinese folk custom. It is a way for people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and to express their best wishes to each other. In China, you will receive a red envelope as a gift, which contains cash.

Red envelopes are gifts presented at social and family gatherings in Chinese New Year. The red colour of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is meant to ward off evil spirits. It is also offered when a person visits as a gesture of kindness for visiting. When giving money, new crispy bills are normally given instead of old dirty bills. Red envelopes are usually given out to the younger generation who are normally still in school or unmarried.

The Spring Festival is not just a celebration, but it is also an invitation for Chinese people to release their emotions and satisfy their psychological needs. It is the annual carnival of the Chinese nation and the eternal spiritual pillar.