Spring Festival 2011

Spring Festival 2011:
http://www.chinesenewyear.me/spring-festival-2011.html

The days of Spring Festival 2011 begins on Feb 3 2011, end on Feb 18 2011.Spring FestivalThe New Moon on the first day of the new year-- the full moon 15 days later

Chinese New Year is a time for families to be together. A reunion dinner is held on New Year's Eve, when Chinese New Year food including Chinese dumplings and spring rolls is eaten.Before the eve of the New Year, everyone tries to come back home from every corner of the country to join the entire family, just like Americans' practice for Christmas, to greet the New Year. A New Year big dinner is served. After the meal, the table is cleared, dishes washed and put away. Then it is time to undertake final preparations to meet the New Year.
The Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. The character put on paper can be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese the "reversed fu" is homophonic with "fu comes", both being pronounced as "fudaole." What's more, two big red lanterns can be raised on both sides of the front door. Red paper-cuttings can be seen on window glass and brightly colored New Year paintings with auspicious meanings may be put on the wall.

The Origin of Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Begining of Spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coodination with the changes of Nature). Its origin is too old to be traced. Several explanations are hanging around. All agree, however, that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese solely means "year", was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year.

The Twenty-Four Terms

The first fifteen days of the Chinese lunar month makes the first term, namely：

Beginning of Spring

usually starting from the fourth or fifth of Febrary. And the first day is the Chinese New Year's Day or the onset of the Spring Festival. Incidentally, the New Year's Day of 1995 is January 31st. The second fifteen days are named：

Spring Festival  food:

dumpling
glutinous rice balls
rice cake
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