Spring Festival marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year on
the Chinese lunar calendar. The first day of the festival usually
falls about one month after the Solar New Year on the Gregorian
calendar. According to
Chinese tradition, preparations for the festival start from the
end of the last lunar month of the previous year. Festival
celebrations extend until the Lantern Festival on the 15th of the
first lunar month of the New Year. However, a fast-paced and hectic
lifestyle makes it difficult for many Chinese to spend an entire
month celebrating the festival. This is why the central government
decided to declare the first week of the festival a public
holiday.
Spring Festival traditions abound, although not all are
practiced today. These include home spring cleaning, shopping for
festival goodies, decorating homes with New Year Pictures and
Spring Festival couplets, lighting firecrackers, and strolling
around temple fairs. On New Year's Eve, family members gather
together to have a family feast. In northern China, jiaozi or
dumplings (with meat and vegetable stuffing) are the delicacy of
choice, while people in southern China prefer niangao (New Year
cake).
Many of China's ethnic minorities celebrate their Lunar New Year
around the same time as the Han people, although some maintain
their own calendars.
