文档介绍：The Spring Festival
By :Lillian
The Origin of Chinese New Year
Chinese new year is a Chinese traditional and special festival. we also call it the spring festival. it is on lunar January 1st. The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the beginning of Spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in condition with the changes of Nature). Its origin is too old to be traced. Several explanations are hanging around. All agree, however, that the word Nian, which in Chinese solely means "year", In ancient China there lived a monster named Year, who started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year.
Sweeping the dust
“Dust” is homophonic with “chen”(尘)in Chinese, which means old and past. In this way, “sweeping the dust” before the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. This custom shows a good wish of putting away old things to e a new life. In a word, just before the Spring es, every household will give a thorough cleaning to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new.
Staying Up Late on New Year's Eve
The tradition of staying up late to see New Year in originated from an interesting folk tale. In ancient China there lived a monster named Year, who was very ferocious. Year always went out from its burrow on New Year’s Eve to devour people. Therefore, on every New Year’s Eve, every household would have supper together. Children should stay up as late as possible on New Year's Eve for it is believed that the later they stay up, the longer their parents will live.
Pasting paper cuts and "up sided fu"
Paper-cuts, give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival and express the good wishes of Chinese people looking forward to a good life. In addition to pasting paper-cuts on
A big meal
A big meal. on new year’s eve, all the people sit around the desk and have a big family dinner. there are some vegetables, some fish, some meat, some f