Chinese New Year By: Aidan Anderson

Subject I chose to do my presentation on what you would expect if you were a tourist going to the Chinese New Year celebration. I will be focusing of the basics, what foods celebrations, tradition and basic info

Where To Go and a Warning Where you go in China impacts how the feel of the festival is. For example if you go to a smaller town it gets very noisy and crazy, but if you go to a major town like Beijing or Shanghai it will be like a ghost town during the day because this is where most of the jobs are available and during the Lunar Festival you must go to your hometown. And because of this the month leading up to this traffic is horrendous, you wont be able to get a plane ticket unless you buy it way ahead of time, and even if you get a ticket the travel wont be pleasant every mean of transportation will be packed to maximum capacity.

What to say If you happen to see a friend on the street some of the greetings are: Happy New Year Wan Shi Ru Yi: everything follows your will Ji Xiang Ru Yi: harmony and everything follows your will Sui Sui Ping An: harmony and safety year around Gong Xi Fa Cai: congratulations and prosperity. (mostly used in southern China)

Traditions The New Year's Eve dinner is the most important dinner for the Chinese. Normally, this is the family reunion dinner, especially for those with family members away from home. During dinner, normally fish will be served. Dumplings are the most important dish in Northern China. These two dishes signify prosperity. Other dishes are dependent on personal preference. The majority of Chinese will have New Year's Eve dinner at home instead of a restaurant.

Fireworks Fireworks are used to drive away the evil in China. Right after 12:00PM on New Year's Eve, fireworks willwill be launched to celebrate the coming of the New Year as well as to drive away the evil. It is believed that the person who launched the first firework of the New Year obtain good luck.

Red Money Packet The Red packet is a red envelope with money in it, which ranges from one to a few thousand Chinese Yuan. Usually the red packet is given by adults, especially married couples, and elderly to young children in the New Year days. It was believed that the money in the red packet will suppress the evil from the children, keep them healthy, and give them a long life.

Stores If you go to a market/store around the New Year you will find them mainly selling New Year goods, such as clothing, fireworks, decorations, food, and small arts. The market is usually decorated with a large amount of lanterns.

Cleaning A few days before the Chinese New Year, people will do a complete cleaning of the house and house wares which signifies to remove the old and welcome the new.

Decorations The most popular New Year decorations are upside down fu, dui lian, lanterns, year paint, paper cutting, door gods, etc.