HHappy New Year! 新年快乐! Chinese New Year is coming. Chinese New year is also called
Spring Festival 春节 [ chūn jié ]. The whole festival usually last about 15 days.
During these 15 days, Chinese people follow many traditions celebrating with their families
and giving offerings to their gods. We are going to release videos covering various topics
relating to Spring Festival history, food, traditions and more. Subscribe to our channel
now and stay tuned! Chinese New Year is the biggest celebration
in China. Depending on the Chinese Lunar Calendar, Chinese New Year usually lies between late
January and early February. Why there is no specific day for Chinese New Year? It is because
the Chinese Lunar calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements, and therefore
the date of Chinese New Year is adjusted every year.
The day before Chinese New year is New Year's Eve, most Chinese people are already on their
way home from the cities. Traveling a long distance can be stressful. Chinese people
have to plan ahead buying train or bus tickets to go home for a family reunion. While children
are rushing to go home, parents are very busy getting their houses clean. We call it Spring
cleaning, 大扫除 [dà sǎo chú] dusting, sweeping the floor and cleaning furniture.
Chinese people believe that in order to receive the "new luck" 新的 [ xīn de], you have
to sweep the "bad luck" 旧的[ jiù de]. All the cleaning has to be done before the
end of New year 's Eve. So let's learn a phrase to capture this meaning. 除旧迎新 [ chú
jiù yíng xīn ]. Besides cleaning, parents will also do lots
of shopping for Chinese New Year celebration. In Chinese, we call it 办年货 [ bàn nián
huò ], here 办 [bàn] means making a big purchase, 年 [ nián ] is year and 货[ huò
] is goods. 办年货 [ bàn nián huò ] means to make a big purchase of goods that the family
has been wanting since the beginning of the year. In the old times, 年货 [nián huò
] was a long list and that includes fresh ingredients for cooking, new clothing and
even New Year snacks for visitors. Just imagine you have to save up for a year to buy what
you want for the new year. For some families, they had to save up for a year to buy a whole
chicken for Chinese New Year. Today, the long list doesn't seem exist anymore since many
Chinese people are wealthier than ever. They are no longer have to wait until the new year
to buy what they want. While their shopping habits may have changed,
they never change the tradition of pasting New Year's banners, or in Chinese we call
them 春联 [ chūn lián ], spring couplets. A spring couplet is a pair of connected lucky
phrases written on red paper. Above the door is a short lucky phrase, Then on both sides
of the door, there is a pair of spring couplets. In the old times, Chinese people read from
right to left, up to down. Today, it is still true when you read Chinese poems or literature.
But, the Chinese language is flexible and in Modern Chinese we read from left to right.
For this reason, you may find people pasting spring couplets from left to right. The lines
rhyme because they are from old literature. For the younger generations, they may go buy
printed spring couplets. But for the older generations, like my grandfather, they like
to write their own spring couplets with a brush and then paste them on a door to express
the good wishes for their family members. Before we say goodbye, let's learn a sentence.
Pasting spring couplets is a traditional custom in China. 贴春联是中国的传统习俗
[ tiē chūn lián shì Zhōng guó de chuán tǒng xí sú ].