Chinese New Year, Spring Festival (simplified Chinese: 春节) or the Lunar New Year, which originally was to honor ancestors as well as deities, celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. As one of the most significant festivals in China, it has been powerfully influencing the Chinese culture and people’s mentality. Around the time of this celebration, a foreigner might be perplexed that millions of Chinese are travelling to their hometown to reunite with their parents or families. Still, from another perspective, the Spring Festival travel season also manifests the profoundness of unity within the families handed on to them from generation to generation.
Traditionally, the Chinese New Year begins on New Year’s Eve and ends on the Lantern Festival, which is held on the 15th day of the year; therefore, Chinese New Year is not simply a one-day festival but lasts for 15 days. When I think of Chinese New Year, the first things that come to my memory would be all family members being gathered together and going around to greet relatives, red decorations, firecrackers and fireworks, red pocket, and of course, dumplings. At the end of the year, people will thoroughly clean the house and put red paper or lanterns as decorations, buying and preparing foods. The preparation before January 1st (using Lunar months) done by the family together with cheerful happiness is indeed heartwarming and meaningful.
Devotion to the family or filial piety (Chinese: 孝, xiào) rooted in Chinese culture has a long history; meaningfully, the teaching of the Catholic Church also urges us to love or honor one’s parents. Being both Chinese and Christians, the first delightful thing for us on the day of the New Year is to participate in the Mass, which is usually celebrated in the early morning, giving thanks to God and asking for “new” blessings. Then, we start to go around the village greeting other family members, which is called 拜年 (bai nian); afterward, all family members will also gather in front of the cemetery to pray. We will schedule the rest of days to visit or be visited by other relatives who are far away, and other gatherings among friends or classmates surely happen during these days. New Year for Christians is a moment of reunion, sharing, and blessing; after all, the longing for love and intimacy finds its rest at home because of the presence of God.
This New Year has different meanings for some people, especially those who cannot go back to their hometowns or find an open church to participate in the Mass due to the restrictions of Covid-19. However, I believe that this current situation makes people more aware of the importance of family when they are together, and value the peace and the serenity when they allow God to be with them. Indeed, the use of social media and the internet is not merely for entertainment but communication, and its advantages certainly help persons to “connect” with each other.
As they continue the Year of Ox’s celebrations, I hope this event in the overflowing grace of God can leave abundant joy to all the people who are rejoicing at this moment.
Xīn Nián Kuài Lè! 新年快乐! (Happy New Year), and 牛年大吉
