Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month. Spring Festival originated in the sacrificial ceremony held shortly after the winter solstice during the early Xia Dynasty (21st-16th century BC), when China was still in the primitive society. The ritual was designed to repay the blessings of the god and celebrate bumper harvests. Today, it has become the foremost of all traditional festivals for the Chinese people.
Right before the festival sets in, people are already busy grocery shopping, making new clothes, paying tribute to the Kitchen God and ancestors, preparing the family reunion banquet, pasting New Year couplets on gateposts or door panels, and pinning up New Year paintings on walls. During the festival, they visit each other and exchange New Year’s greetings. Firecrackers are let off to liven up the atmosphere. A lot of dining and wining takes place during the festival, and every family make and eat New Year’s cakes (made of glutinous rice flour), dumplings and sweet dumplings. There are dragons, lion, and lantern shows in both urban and rural areas, as merry-makers bid farewell to old year and wish for a good beginning in the new year, exorcise evil spirits and pestilence, and pray for good harvests and good luck in the new year.
