Happy Spring Festival! (Gwuh Nee-en Haow!) Luck, health and prosperity to every of you all year long of the Pig. At the Chinese Calendar, 2007 is the Lunar Year 4704-4705 and the brand new Year festivities begin on February 18th.

Spring Festival, also referred to as Chinese New Year, is an important celebration in China. It carries the similar, if no more, importance as Christmas does in western countries. Traditional Spring Festival is synonymous with happiness and success; for greater than 15 days, special foods and activities contribute to cherished, lifetime memories. Temple fairs, dragon and lion dances, fireworks equal to a war zone’s sound and light-weight proportions, stilt walking, lantern carnivals and acrobatic shows are everywhere. Pictures of the god of doors and wealth, Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper, and bright red paper cuttings decorate households and add to the ambience of excellent cheer.

The feast of Spring Festival stands out as the most scrumptious dinner of the year. Dishes which include chicken, fish, and bean curd are the favorites, their homophones, respectively jee, yiew, and doh foo mean auspiciousness, abundance, and prosperity. Jee-aow zih (Chinese dumplings), nee-en gaow (New Year cakes) and tahng yiew-en (a type of round dumpling product of glutinous rice flour and sweet stuffing served in soup) also are special foods of the season.

After dinner, families play cards or board games, or watch TV programs highlighting the vacation. On New Year’s Day itself, the traditional custom of Hong Baow (meaning red packet) occurs. Children and unmarried adults are given red envelopes of cash which symbolizes luck and wealth. Following Hong Baow, families say greetings from door to door, first to their relatives after which to their neighbors. Just like the western saying: Let Bygones Be Bygones, at Chinese New Year, old grudges are cast aside.