Spring Festival ─ What is that?

For Chinese around the world, the New Year begins on Chinese Lunar New Year, not January 1.

Each Chinese lunar year is associated with an animal sign according to the Chinese zodiac. This coming one is the Year of the Dog which begins tomorrow.

Legend has it that Chinese New Year — the first lunar month — started with a mythical beast called Nian which lives under the sea or in the mountains. The character nian means “year.”

Nian would eat villagers, especially children. One year, all the villagers decided to hide from the beast. An old man appeared before the villagers went into hiding and said that he would stay the night and take revenge on the monster.

The old man put up red paper and set off firecrackers. The day after, the villagers came back to the town and found that nothing was destroyed. The villagers then understood that Nian was afraid of the color red and loud noises.

When another new year was approaching, villagers would wear red clothes, hang red lanterns and red scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away Nian. The beast never attacked the village again.

In the days leading to the Lunar New Year celebration, Chinese families give their homes a thorough cleaning. It is believed that cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes their homes ready for good luck.

Homes are often decorated with paper cutouts of Chinese auspicious phrases and couplets.

Purchasing new clothing and shoes also symbolize a new start. Any haircuts need to be completed before the New Year, as cutting hair on the day is considered bad luck due to the pronunciation of the word “hair” (fa) and the word for “prosperity.”