5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT CHINESE NEW YEAR
Kung Hei Fat Choi! It’s high time to
celebrate and welcome the “Year of the Fire Rooster”. I suppose many of you are thinking about how
we can enjoy and get the full blast of the Chinese New Year. For some, maybe a good
bite of a signature dish called “tikoy” would be enough for a while. And there
are those adventurous people who are far too committed to the celebration
itself, that even trying the most bizarre things in order to feel the authentic
spirit of Chinese New Year wouldn’t be a big of a deal for them. Well
nonetheless, such few things are how we feel the essence of the prestigious and
vibrant Chinese New Year.
1. BAD
HAIR DAY
Well that’s it! Having your hair washed is
considered as taboo as part of the Chinese New Year celebration. It is believed
that doing such may also implies ‘washing away’ the good fortune for the whole
year. This is because of the identical pronunciation of these Chinese words “发”[fa] or hair and 发财 [facai] which means to
make good fortune. Needless to say that hair exacts a prosperous living for the
entire year. But don’t worry; it will
only last during the first three days of the Chinese New Year Celebration.
2. BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND
FOR RENT?
Very ridiculous as it seems, right? But in
China, in times of celebrating their New Year, demands for renting a boyfriend
or girlfriend is also escalating. This is very common for single men and women
who are being pressured by their parents to get married as much as possible.
The reason behind all this stuff is because it’s barely possible for men and
women ages 31 and 33 respectively to get married if they remained single on
those ages. Furthermore, it’s in the Chinese culture that they consider
unmarried people on those age brackets as an undesirable member of the society,
thus forcing them to do so.
3. NOODLE-LICIOUS
START OF THE YEAR.
It’s pretty obvious that most of us had
learned the fact that in Chinese culture, eating noodles resembles a staggering
“long life”. If you want to make the most of it, cutting the noodles before
having it cooked is not a good deal. In that case, you should know the
implications if you did the latter.
4. THE
INFATUATION FOR THE “RED COLOR”
From a fastidious and improvised dancing
dragon craft, handy envelopes,
well-embellished lanterns and so on, every single decoration that you would
spot during the Chinese New Year celebration are all wearing the red color. The
big question is—how did it happen? Tracing back the rich history of China,
well, this is because of a very famous Chinese legend about a ferocious beast
called “nian”. Each year, the latter used to devour innocent villagers and in
order to hold the beast back, they revealed any object in red before its eyes.
Moreover, they put on some loud noises to scare the beast off too.
The word “nian” also means “year” in Chinese
and in relation to a wild beast, year is something to be feared of such as the
arrival of sickness, famine, drought and other relevant catastrophes. In order
to get rid of the latter, likewise for what the legend said about the beast,
Chinese people usually display red decorations everywhere and making loud
noises in the form of igniting fire crackers. With these, they can enjoy the
entire year in an overloading abundance of good luck.
5. #THROWBACKMOMENTS
NO MORE
When we celebrate a special holiday, it’s in
our blood to serve delectable and luscious meals on the table, fill our homes
with well-embellished traditional decorations and watch an amusing and splendid
fireworks display. But amongst those ecstatic ways of celebrating holidays, an
exchange of worthwhile stories in a conversation shouldn’t be kicked out in the
bucket list too. And as we’re carried away with the conversation, we tend to
reminisce a variety of things that happened in the past—regardless if it’s a
good or a bad one.
However, during the celebration of Chinese
New Year, it’s not permissible to talk about anything that happened in the
past. People should be exchanging ideas
about their future plans instead. Doing so would help them start a very
refreshing year and attract positive energy for the whole. Well, if you’re
totally conquered by being sentimental, you may resume after the celebration of
course.
Above everything else, there are lots of
things to know about the Chinese people and how rich their culture is. And these
facts would surely give you the “feels” of being a Chinese even just for a day.
Aside from the different superstitions and traditions associated to Chinese
that we think would give us luck, our fate still depends on our own ways. Let's
all look forward on having a Roos-TERRIFIC year ahead of us. Kung Hei Fat ChoI!
Plenty of years had passed since the
tradition of celebrating the Chinese New Year started. And a lot of people,
Chinese or not, have been captivated by this prestigious celebration of the year.
In return, this joyous feeling makes most of us to immerse with the Chinese
culture. Well, if you happened to be included in the list, here are the
following things that I bet you haven’t learned about the Chinese New Year
By: John Renzon J. Andres
REFERENCES:
https://www.factretriever.com/chinese-new-year-facts
http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/festivals/new-year-facts.htm
http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/festivals/chinese-new-year-history.htm
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/chinese-new-year
