HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! 🎉
Today it is the lunar New Year's eve, noted also with the name of Chinese New Year's eve.
The celebrations are also extended in Bhutan, Korea, Japan, Malesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Singapore, Vietnam and in any other countries in which there is a Chinese community.
Also in our city in Italy, Turin, there are these celebrations and I wants to show you how the Chinese community let us enter in their wonderful world, full of traditions. (these photos are taken in Turin, so you can see the mix between Chinese and Italian communities)
The families meet up, they pray and do a ritual cleaning of the house, to leave space to the good fate that the new year brings.
The New Year's eve falls between January 21 and February 20 of every year, on the occasion of the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar. This year, it begins today and it is the Year of the Dog.
The New Year's eve opens a period of festivity -15 days long- that will be finished with the party of the lanterns.
The day before the new year, according to the Chinese tradition, you must do great cleanings. It symbolically sweeps out the bad luck, to let the space for the good fate in the new year. Everyone decorates all in red color.
During the first day of the Festivities, you should visit your relatives. Eating meet or cooking in this day is bad auspice, so avoid this.
The second day is dedicated to the cult of the dead. In the third and forth day, you should stay at home because the tradition asserts that the quarrels are easy. The fifth day is considered the date of birth of the Chinese God of the money and the wealth. The seventh day is the recurrence of the creation of the man. The last day, there is the party of the lanterns. You go down in the streets with lanterns, and out of the door, there are candles, to drive the good spirits to the houses.
It is tradition to exchange red envelopes with money. The number of the money must be equal because at the funerals the given money is odd. Money sends away the evil spirits.
CHINESE ZODIAC
The Chinese zodiac assigns an animal to every year. They are 12 and they repeat: mouse, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig. They are associated to 5 elements: earth, water, fire, air, metal. Every year corresponds with an animal and every cycle is associated to a different element. There is a year of the Dog every 12 years and the Dog of Earth, the one of this year, it arrives each 60.
The Dog is symbol of sensibility, loyalty, fortune and intelligence. The astrologers define this year a good one, the economy will be all right, but there is melancholy. It is a good year to change your life style. The ones born in the year of the Dog have honesty and a strong sense of the justice.
DANCE OF THE LION AND THE DRAGON
A famous tradition and one of the most spectacular is the dance of the lion, often performed together with the dance of the dragon.
The lion, a sacred animal, is able to send away the evil. Its dance is sign of good auspice and thanks to the percussions that accompany it, it can succeed in sending away the evil spirits.
It's known also as Nan Si (lion of the south) or Xing Si (lion of the power). The born of the dance belongs to ancient times. A lot of stories and legends are developed around the origin of the dance of the lion, often tied up to the rural demand of exorcize famines, illnesses and still to recall the attention of the supernatural entities to receive favors of them and fortune.
One of the legend narrates that in ancient times, during a famine, a terrible pestilence caused the death of thousands people; during this plague, a huge animal appeared, with a horn on top of the head that shook the earth with its heavy footstep. Its noisy passage destroyed the evil negative influences, bringing life and health. The Chinese people understood that the "benevolent monster" appeared in concomitance with the beginning of the new year, sent by the gods. That's why the dance of the lion is considered for a long time a symbol of good auspice and good luck, not only during the celebrations of the New Year's eve.
Another legend is the one that is attributed to the famine that has tormented the Chinese territory for many centuries. A night the emperor dreamt a strange creature with the power to bring fortune and to send away the evil from the earth, so, later that morning, he ordered to its servants to build a copy of the creature that himself had dreamt and to make it turn the country. It was so that prosperity returned.
Another ancient Chinese legend narrates that in the city of Canton, the last day of the year, a monster that devoured the vegetable of the farmers appeared and sometimes it attached even men and animals. People thought it was a god, so the inhabitants built a mask similar to the head of the monster and they danced to give it honors and wishes but the monster frightened, and it didn't return anymore. Since then, every year is celebrated with the dance as auspice for a good year.
To make the dance of the lion, two athletes are needed: one manages the superior part of the body of the lion, checking the anterior legs, the movement of the head, of the eyes and of the mouth; the other one has a reduced view and he occupies the lower part of the body and of the tail.
The dance is accompanied by a musical background, with a drum, two dishes and the gong. The drum is very important because it scan the rhythm and it imposes the movements that the lion will make to perform.
This dance is often associated to the dance of the dragon.
The dragons are bearers of good fate, they have strength and are symbols of dignity, of fertility and wisdom. The apparition of a dragon is dreadful, but at the same time it has a benevolent disposition.
During the exhibition, a group of people handed the body of the dragon, imitating the movements of the spirit of the waters in a sinuous and undulated way to symbolize the strength and the dignity that traditionally represent the creature.
LUCKY MENU
During the Chinese New Year's eve, traditionally there is a banquet with foods that should bring good fortune..an authentic lucky menù.
Traditionally there's the fish, that is called Yu: carp (that brings good luck), fish cat ( symbol of money and material goods for the new). The fish must have a precise position in the dish of course: its head must be turned toward the elder ones or the guest of honor, in sign of respect.
Other food of the Chinese New Year's eve are the raviolis, usually full of meat of pig, chicken or steer or prawns and vegetables elegantly cut. They are cooked to the vapor (zheng jiao) or to the plate (guotie). If the zone where the extremities of the raviolis are united are too much thin, it means that poverty will come in the new year. Some add inside the raviolis a copper coin (and the one who finds it is destined to become rich) or a white thread as symbol of longevity (and the one who finds it is destined to have a long life).
Don't miss the involtinis spring, filled with vegetables, meat and sweet ingredients; you should eat also the noodles of the longevity, jumped in frying pan or boiled in broth, as wish of a long life; cake of rice (cake of New Year's eve), called Niangao, symbol of an increase of salary or a promotion, realized with rice, sugar, chestnuts.
In the lucky menu, there are also rice's little balls sweets, Tangyuan, symbol of family union. Among the fruits, you can find mandarins, oranges and cedar.
Happy new year to you all! 🎉🎉🎉