Gung Hei Fa-Choy, Happy Chinese New Year

Gung Hei Fa-Choy and Happy New Year. As you may or may not know, Feb. 18 is Chinese New Year. It will be the year of the pig. What exactly is Chinese New Year and what does it mean it’s year of the pig? How do you celebrate Chinese New Year?
This is for all of you that were afraid to ask …

1. What is Chinese New Year?
Chinese New Year is a time of happiness, prosperity, and longevity. On this day, all debts and all grudges are called off, NO EXCEPTIONS. It is a time of wishing prosperity, happiness, and longevity to everyone. It’s a time of second chances, a time of starting over with a clean slate.
To the Chinese, it is the year 4705. It is also known as the Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year ( it always falls on the first new moon of the Chinese lunar calender. ) The celebration lasts for 15 days and each day has it’s own significant meaning and tradition, ( for example, the seventh day is considered everyone’s birthday, so they celebrate everyone growing one year older together.) Chinese New Year ends on the full moon (the fifteenth day of the new moon) and is celebrated by the infamous Lantern Festival. The Lantern Festival is a time with everyone brings a lantern to the parade, and watches the Dragon lantern dance around everyone because the Dragon is a symbol of prosperity.

2. What is the history behind Chinese New Year?
There are many stories as to the origins of Chinese New Year. The most common legend you will come across is the story of the Nian, the man-eating monster. Once a year, Nian would come down from the mountains to eat the villagers. Furious, the villagers one day decided to join together to scare away Nian by using what they had: red fireworks, drums, and gongs. When Nian came back around, the villagers set off the fireworks, banged on their drums and gongs, and wore the color red (rumor had it that Nian was afraid of the color red.) Much to their surprise, it worked. Nian was defeated by the loud noises and by the color red. Nian never came back to prey on the villagers after that. The villagers had a huge celebration in honor of their victory.

3. What’s with all the animals?
The origin of the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac is still unknown. However, there are legends as to how the particular order came to be. The most popular legend you will find is that one day the Heavenly Jade Emperor started a race among the animals. The first twelve that came up to heaven would be rewarded a year named after them. The ox was in the lead, but the rat (who was on the ox’s back) jumped off at the end and made it to the Jade Emperor first. As each animal arrived, the Jade Emperor rewarded them their own year, starting with the rat and ending with the pig.

4.What does year of the pig mean?
You may come across a few websites indicating that it will be year of the GOLDEN pig, however do not believe this. Astrologically speaking, it will be year of the Fire Pig. What this means, is that this year will be a prosperous year: good for businesses, excellent for finishing up any projects or goals one may have.

5. How do you celebrate Chinese New Year?
The Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year by having a huge family dinner and by handing eachother “Lucky Money” (money inside little red envelopes, ) Traditionally, the adults give the kids “Lucky Money” to start off their new year with prosperity, yet adults will still give eachother Lucky Money.

For decorations, some people like to put up couplets that have prosperous meanings (i.e. ” May you have good luck and longevity this year.” ) They usuallly are written in gold characters on red paper. Oranges and tangerines are present as well, because these symbolize good luck and wealth.

Certain colors are also present in order to greet the new year. For example, the colors orange and gold symbolize prosperity, and the color red represents banishing away negative energy in order to receive prosperity.

Lion dances, and firecrackers are performed in front of businesses during Chinese New Year. This lion dance is for exorcising negativity and drawing forth good luck and prosperity, and the firecrackers are also used to ward away evil spirits.

And lastly, you may have heard Chinese people saying “Gung Hei Fa-Choy (Cantonese) ” or “Gong Xi Fa Chai” (Mandarin) which literally means, “I wish you to be prosperous.” They will also say Happy New Year, “Sun nin fy lok” (Cantonese) / “Xin nian kuai le” (Mandarin.) However, it is more common to wish others prosperity (”Gung Hei Fa Choy.”)

As you can see, Chinese New Year is about celebrating the coming of prosperity and good luck to all. Hopefully, this has helped clear up any questions that you may have had.

We here at Unicovia, Unicorn Cove, and Unicorn 1 Records would like to wish you all Gung Hei Fa Choy and Happy New Year.