Spring Festival

Far and away the most important holiday in China is Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year. To the Chinese people it is as important as Christmas to people in the West. The dates for this annual celebration are determined by the lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, so the timing of the holiday varies from late January to early February.

To the ordinary Chinese, the festival actually begins on the eve of the lunar New Year’s Day and ends on the fifth day of the first month of the lunar calendar. But the 15th of the first month, which normally is called the Lantern Festival, means the official end of the Spring Festival in many parts of the country.

Preparations for the New Year begin the last few days of the last moon, when houses are thoroughly cleaned, debts repaid, hair cut and new clothes purchased. Houses are festooned with paper scrolls bearing auspicious antithetical couplet (as show on both side of the page) and in many homes, people burn incense at home and in the temples to pay respects to ancestors and ask the gods for good health in the coming months.

“Guo Nian,” meaning “passing the year,” is the common term among the Chinese people for celebrating the Spring Festival. It actually means greeting the new year. At midnight at the turn of the old and new year, people used to let off fire-crackers which serve to drive away the evil spirits and to greet the arrival of the new year. In an instant the whole city would be engulfed in the deafening noise of the firecrackers.

On New Year’s Eve, all the members of families come together to feast. Jiaozi, a steamed dumpling as pictured below, is popular in the north, while southerners favor a sticky sweet glutinous rice pudding called nian gao.

Legend of Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is the most important and biggest festival in China. To the Chinese people it is as important as Christmas to people in the West. It is the first day of the lunar calendar and usually occurs somewhere between January 30 and February 20, heralding the beginning of spring, thus it is known as Spring Festival. This traditional festival is also a festival of reunion, thus no matter how far away people are from their home, they would try their best to get back home to have the Reunion Dinner.

The Chinese meaning of this festival isGuo Nian.Guomeans pass over andNianmeans year. The origin of the Chinese New Year Festival can be traced back thousands of years through a continually evolving series of colorful legends and traditions. According to one of the most famous legends, in ancient China there lived a monster namedYearwho, with a horn on the head, was extremely ferocious.Yearlived deep at the bottom of the sea all the year round and climbed up to the shore only on New Year’s Eve to devour the cattle and kill people’s lives.

Thereupon on the day of every New Year’s Eve people from all villages would flee, bringing along the old and the young, to the remote mountains so as to avoid the calamity caused by the monster ofYear.

On the day of that New Year’s Eve the people of Peach Blossom village were bringing along the old and the young to take flight when there came from outside the village an old beggar. With a stick in his hand and a bag hanging upon his arm, he had eyes twinkling like stars and graceful beard as white as silver.

Seized with panic, the villagers were in a great hurry to run away. Some were closing the windows and locking the doors, some were packing, and others were urging the cattle and driving the sheep. At a time when the people were shouting and the horses were neighing no one was in the mood to care for the beggar.

Only a grandmother living in the east end of the village gave the old man some food and advised him to flee to the mountains to avoid theYearmonster. But the old man stroked his beard and said with a smile, “If you allow me to stay at your home for the night, I’m sure to drive away the monsterYear.”

The old woman was surprised to hear this. She looked at him unbelievingly only to find that, with white hair and ruddy complexion, the old man had a bearing out of the ordinary. She went on to persuade him to take flight. But he only smiled without reply. Thereupon the grandmother could not help but leave her home and flee to the mountains.

Around midnight the monsterYearrushed into the villages. He found the atmosphere was quite different from that of the previous year. The house of the grandmother in the east end of the village was brilliantly illuminated, with bright red paper stuck on the doors. Greatly shocked, the monster gave a strange loud cry.

The monsterYearstared angrily at the house for a moment. And then howling furiously, he made a pounce on it. As he approached the door, there came all of a sudden the exploding sounds of bang-bong. Trembling all over, the monster dared not make a step forward.

It turned out that the red color; flame and exploding were whatYearfeared the most. And when the door of the grandmother’s house was thrown open and an old man in a red robe burst out laughing in the courtyard, the monsterYearwas scared out of his wits and fled helter-skelter.

The next day was the 1st of the first lunar month. When people came back from their hideouts and found everything safe and sound, they were quite surprised. The old woman suddenly realized what had happened and told the villagers about the old beggar’s promise.

The villagers swarmed into the grandmother’s house, only to find that the doors were struck with red paper, the ember of a pile of bamboo were still giving out exploding sound of bang-bong in the courtyard, and a few candles were still glowing in the room…

The story was soon spread far and wide and everybody was talking about it. They concluded in the end that the old beggar was surely the celestial being who came to expel the calamities and bless the people, and that red paper, red cloth, red candles and the exploding firecracker were certainly the magic weapons to drive out the monsterYear.

To celebrate the arrival of the auspiciousness, the raptured villagers put on their clothes and new hats and went one after another to their relatives and friends to send their regards and congratulations. This was soon spread to the surrounding villages, and people all got to know the way to drive away the monsterYear.

From then on, on each New Year’s Eve, each family stick on their doors antithetical couplets written on red paper, blow up firecrackers, keep their houses brilliantly illuminated and stay up late into the night. Early in the morning of the 1st of the first lunar month they go to their relatives and friends’ to send their regards and congratulations. These customs are spreading far and wide and kept for generations. It becomes the most ceremonious traditional festival of the Chinese people.

Chinese knotting

Chinese knotting is a decorative handicraft arts that began as a form of Chinese folk art in the Tang and Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) in China. It was later popularized in the Ming and Qing Dynasty (1368-1911 AD). The art is also referred to as Chinese traditional decorative knots. In other cultures, it is known as “Decorative knots”.

 History
Archaeological studies indicate that the art of tying knots dates back to prehistoric times. Recent discoveries include 100,000-year old bone needles used for sewing and bodkins, which were used to untie knots. However, due to the delicate nature of the medium, few examples of prehistoric Chinese knotting exist today. Some of the earliest evidence of knotting have been preserved on bronze vessels of the Warring States period (481–221 BCE), Buddhist carvings of the Northern Dynasties period (317–581) and on silk paintings during the Western Han period (206 BCE–CE6).

Further references to knotting have also been found in literature, poetry and the private letters of some of the most infamous rulers of China. In the 1700s, one book that talked extensively about the art was Dream of the Red Chamber.

The phenomenon of knot tying continued to steadily evolve over the course of thousands of years with the development of more sophisticated techniques and increasingly intricate woven patterns. During the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) knotting finally broke from its pure folklore status, becoming an acceptable art form in Chinese society and reached the pinnacle of its success. Knotting continued to flourish up until about the end of imperial China and the founding of the Republic of China in 1911 AD when China began its modernization period[1]. From 1912 to the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, the art of Chinese knotting was almost lost.

In the late 1970s a resurgence of interest occurred in Taiwan, largely due to the efforts of Lydia Chen (Chen Hsia-Sheng) of the National Palace Museum who founded the Chinese Knotting Promotion Center. In the 1980s, Mrs. Chen focused her energies on the knotting artifacts preserved during the Qing Dynasty. Currently, Chinese knotting enjoys wide popularity in Taiwan with numerous specialty shops to be found.

In February 2008, Corra Liew from Malaysia seek possibilities out from the traditional Wire Jewelry Making technique, Chinese knotting is then merged and presented in wire form. Corra addressed the technique as Wired Chinese Knot.

Senior organizer meets Italian delegation

Date:22/10/2009

scene of the meeting

A delegation led by Umberto Vattani, president of the Italian Trade Commission, visited the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination today.

Zhou Hanmin, deputy director of the World Expo 2010 Shanghai Executive Committee, welcomed the delegation.

The two sides exchanged views about Italy’s Expo exhibition.

Haibao debuts in Chuzhou

Date:22/10/2009

A statue of Expo 2010 mascot Haibao was unveiled in Chuzhou City in east China’s Anhui Province this morning.

Meng Guilin, vice mayor of the city, said Chuzhou, in the Yangtze River Delta region, has witnessed close cooperation with Shanghai in various fields.

She noted that the Expo would provide a golden opportunity for Chuzhou’s development and called on government officials of the city to gear up for the event to share its fruits.