Chinese New Year VS Christmas

The most important social holiday in China is The Chinese New Year. According to the Chinese calendar, the festival is usually between the end of January to mid of February.


The festival is a time for family gathering.  Since different family members are working in different region in China, Chinese New Year is an opportunity to renew family ties.

Do you find that the Chinese New Year is so similar to Christmas? Both consider family gathering as the most important activity in the festival.

What do they do during the festivals?

Decoration

Westerners will decorate Christmas trees; Chinese will decorate their houses with Auspicious Messages (i.e. Red banners).
       


Mistletoe(left), Poinsettias(middle), Holly, Ivy and Greenery(right) are plants that used for decoration during Christmas; while orange plants(left),  pink flowers(middle), and Water Lily(right).
 


       

Beliefs

In Western, there is a saying that Santa Claus will send blessings and give gifts to well behaved children; Chinese believe that the Chinese parade will protect us from bad luck and the devils.

            

Food

Turkey may be one of the traditional food in Christmas, Chinese New Year has different kinds of traditional food, such as:

Chinese carrot cakes(front), rice cakes(back)


Candy Box



Tang Yuan (i.e.Chinese sweet dumplings)

Other Activities

While westerns will send Christmas cards, give,open presents to each other, watch TV programme, play games with family in the festival, while in the Lunar New Year, red envelopes are given by the married to the unmarried, most of whom are children.

Interesting fact:

The amount of money is usually a single note to avoid heavy coins and to make it difficult to judge the amount inside before opening. It is traditional to put brand new notes inside red envelopes and also to avoid opening the envelopes in front of the relatives out of courtesy.
The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits.


     





Reference:
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