Spring Festival And Lantern Festival
Spring Festival and Lantern Festival
By Yolanda
The Spring Festival, also known as the lunar new year, which falls in late January or early February. It is said that the Spring Festival evolved from an activity known as the “Winter Sacrifice”. And the word “Nian”, which in modern Chinese solely means year, was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a New Year. So people hang“good luck”wishes on red paper on the door and wall, use fireworks in the belief that the beast fears red and fire.
During the Spring Festival, people always do six major activities. First, people clean their house thoroughly, and then paste New Year couplets, pictures and the character of “Fu” on doors and wishes. The third, invite the gods of kitchen and fortune. Next, stay up late till New Year's Eve, and on the first day of the Chinese lunar year, juniors will great seniors while seniors will give juniors some gift money as a wish for their safety in the coming year. People also eat dumplings at 12:00 p.m. or in the morning on the first day.
There are many different beliefs about the origin of the Lantern Festival, but one thing for sure is that it had something to do with religious worship. There is a legend which I like the most. It says that many years ago, there were many monsters which ate human beings. So people were organized to kill the monsters, but a bird from heaven was accidentally by a hunter. When god heard the news, he was very angry, so he decided to let the soldiers of heaven to go to the world in the first month of the lunar year, 15th. And set fire to kill all the human beings. But god 's daughter is a very kind girl, she don' t want to see all the human beings were killed by her father, so she went to the world in secret, and told people this message. People were shocked by this news, but didn't know what to do. Finally, an old man had an idea. He said:“During the first month of the lunar year，in
By Yolanda
The Spring Festival, also known as the lunar new year, which falls in late January or early February. It is said that the Spring Festival evolved from an activity known as the “Winter Sacrifice”. And the word “Nian”, which in modern Chinese solely means year, was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a New Year. So people hang“good luck”wishes on red paper on the door and wall, use fireworks in the belief that the beast fears red and fire.
During the Spring Festival, people always do six major activities. First, people clean their house thoroughly, and then paste New Year couplets, pictures and the character of “Fu” on doors and wishes. The third, invite the gods of kitchen and fortune. Next, stay up late till New Year's Eve, and on the first day of the Chinese lunar year, juniors will great seniors while seniors will give juniors some gift money as a wish for their safety in the coming year. People also eat dumplings at 12:00 p.m. or in the morning on the first day.
There are many different beliefs about the origin of the Lantern Festival, but one thing for sure is that it had something to do with religious worship. There is a legend which I like the most. It says that many years ago, there were many monsters which ate human beings. So people were organized to kill the monsters, but a bird from heaven was accidentally by a hunter. When god heard the news, he was very angry, so he decided to let the soldiers of heaven to go to the world in the first month of the lunar year, 15th. And set fire to kill all the human beings. But god 's daughter is a very kind girl, she don' t want to see all the human beings were killed by her father, so she went to the world in secret, and told people this message. People were shocked by this news, but didn't know what to do. Finally, an old man had an idea. He said:“During the first month of the lunar year，in