Chinese New Year 2009

Zou qinqi – the travel of Chinese people

2009-01-21T17:31:00.000-08:00

It is a Chinese custom to go visit the family relatives when a Chinese new year comes. They visit to close relatives in the first day of a year or in the first two or three days. As for those distant relatives visits are welcome in any day of the first fifteen days. And those visits are called Zou Qinqi, with Qinqi standing for relatives and Zou for visiting.
Chinese would take gifts to relatives and the visited family would give gifts in return. Gifts include everything that symbolizes good luck. The exchange of gifts is just nominal and courtesy. When visiting relatives, people would recall everything in the past year and wish everyone good luck in the upcoming new year.
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Hongbao – lucky money

2009-01-21T17:30:00.000-08:00

On the Chinese New Year’s Eve or anytime during the spring festival holidays, the aged would give Chinese kids money, known as lucky money, which is put in small, red packets called Hongbao in Chinese language with Hong for red the color and Bao for packet. In southern China, not only Chinese kids or Chinese teens can be presented with Hongbao, but also young adults as long as they are not married.
The lucky money in the Hongbao is called Ya Sui Qian. Ya means suppress; one Chinese character with pronunciation of Sui means devils; Qian is the word for money in Chinese language. To put together, Ya Sui Qian means the thing that can suppress devils and maintain kids in peace and safety for a whole year.
In some southern area, particularly in Guangdong province, Hongbao is called Lishi. And there is a saying that kids would say when asking for a Hongbao, Gong Xi Fa Cai Hongbao Na lai, wish you make plenty of money in the new year and please hand me a Hongbao.
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Bainian - Chinese New Year Greetings

2009-01-21T17:29:00.000-08:00

When the first day of a new year comes, the first thing Chinese would do is Bainian, Chinese New Year greetings.
As Chinese would stay up on the New Year’s Eve till the early morning of the first day of the new year, when the very moment of the new year arrives people would say ‘Bainian, Bainian’to everyone around and some auspicious phrases, known as Chinese wishing, such as Gong Xi Fa Cai (wish you make plenty of money), Ji Xiang Ru Yi (wish you be lucky and everything goes as wished), He Jia Huan Le (wish your family is harmonious and every family member is happy), and Shen Ti Jian Kang (wish you healthy).
On the first day after getting up, kids should go Bainian to their grandparents and everyone to his/her parents. In the ancient times, the gesture that kids would make to their grandparents is Ketou, falling on kneels and placing palms and forehead downward onto the ground. And the wishes to the aged family members are always related health and longevity. When greeting people of the same age, Chinese would Zuoyi, making a bow with hands folded in front and also say something sounding auspicious.
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The Year of Niu - Chinese Ox Year

2009-01-21T17:28:00.000-08:00

Chinese new year 2009 falls on January 26, 2009 when Chinese twelve-year circle will roll into the year of ox. In Chinese language, ox is pronounced as Niu. Niu, as an animal in general, was playing the role of dragging a plough in field before the invention of modern industrialized farm tools in Chinese history. The image of Niu in Chinese culture is hard-working and down-to-earth so that it is highly respected by Chinese.
When there are different terms, such as ox, bull, cattle, etc., to refer to different species of one kind, there is only one, Niu, for all those terms. And in Chinese there is no special term for beef but just the addition of a word, Rou which means meat in general, to Niu that forms a phrase of Niu Rou. Bull market in Chinese is called Niu Shi with shi standing for market. Niu is also a family name in China and a commonly used one.
Thanks to the shape of Niu, being strong and muscular, and its powerful moos, Niu has become a new slang frequently used by Chinese young and more and more Chinese of all ages. It, functioning as an adjective, is used to praise a capable person. And in most cases it is used humorously. Particularly, when the year of ox is coming around, Chinese are saying greetings mixing Niu the symbolic animal of the year and Niu the popularly used slang, such as wish you be Niu in the year of Niu, which means wish you a success in the year of ox.
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Jiaozi – Chinese dumpling

2009-01-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

As a symbol of Chinese food, Jiaozi, Chinese dumpling is a must at a lot of Chinese festivals, especially on the occasion of Chinese New Year’s eve. A story says Jiaozi was invented by doctor Zhang Zhongjing, a famous Chinese doctor in ancient China, to save poor people from frostbite as filling dough with meat and traditional Chinese medicine.
The pronunciation of Jiaozi came from the tradition of eating dumplings on Chinese New Year’s Eve, which became a tradition later after Zhang Zhongjing, the famous doctor, invented it. In Chinese ancient timing system, the time named Zi is twelve o’clock in the midnight. When this moment comes on the eve of the last day of a year the New Year is coming in time. And in Chinese, the whole process is called Geng Sui Jiao Zi that means the change of years and Jiao Zi means that the change happens at the very moment of Zi.
The shape of Jiaozi is like that of Yuanbao, a Chinese ancient silver currency, Chinese think that the shape is quite auspicious. Northern Chinese eat Jiaozi more while Southern Chinese eat less and don’t call it Huntun in stead of Jiaozi. And there were other names for Jiaozi in Chinese history, Jiao’er, Bianshi, boiled Momo, and etc.
There are sayings about Jiaozi, such as chu men jiaozi jin men mian, which means one needs to eat Jiaozi when leaving home for a long time and eat noodle when coming back home.
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Wishes for Chinese New Year 2009 - eChineseLearning

2008-12-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

The best way to learn Chinese - eChineseLearning

2008-12-22T00:25:00.000-08:00

How to say " be host", "it is my treat" in Chinese

2008-11-25T01:03:00.001-08:00

How to say " be host", "it is my treat" in Chinese

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How to say " be host", "it is my treat" in Chinese

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Introduction of Chinese New Year

2008-11-11T00:03:00.000-08:00

Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is sometimes called the Lunar New Year, especially by people outside China. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year's Eve is known as Chúxī (除夕, abbr. for 年除夕 Niánchúxī, Chúxì in Taiwan). It literally means "Year-pass Eve".

Celebrated in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbours, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction.[citation needed] These include Taiwanese, Koreans, Mongolians, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, and formerly the Japanese before 1873. In Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other countries with significant Chinese populations, Chinese New Year is also celebrated, largely by overseas Chinese, but it is not part of the traditional culture of these countries. In Canada, although Chinese New Year is not an official holiday, many ethnic Chinese hold large celebrations and Canada Post issues New Year's themed stamps in domestic and international rates.

Although the Chinese calendar traditionally did not use continuously numbered years, its years are now often numbered from the reign of Huangdi outside China. But at least three different years numbered 1 are now used by various writers, causing the year beginning in 2008 to be 4706, 4705, or 4645.

Chinese New Year 2009

2008-11-05T22:58:00.000-08:00

Chinese new year 2009 falls on 26th of January, 2009. The Chinese New Year is celebrated as the symbol of spring's celebration. In fact in China the Chinese New Year is still called the Spring festival. It is celebrated after the fall harvest and before the spring planting season. The date of the Chinese New Year is always changing and is dependant on the Chinese calendar. Emperor Huangdi in the year 2637 B.C.E invented the Chinese calendar.