Spring Festival in China

Time: January, 1st, according to the Chinese lunar calendar
Spring Festival also known as Chinese New Year is the most important traditional festival in China. The festival takes place in January or February and begins on the first day of the first lunar month. It is the important Chinese holiday when all big family will gather together to celebrate it. At that time, it definitely become the busiest time for China transportation system because all of the people will go back to their own hometown. Now, people have seven days off based on Chinese government regulation. During the festival, all the people will busy prepare to celebrate it.

Spring Festival Decorations
Before the New Year come, all the people completely clean their home and decorate it with couplets, highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. Beside on purpose to form an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity, this activity believed as house owner's wishes for a bright future and good luck for the whole next year. Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. An interesting fact is that the Character Fu is usually displayed upside-down. That's because in Chinese, the words for "upside-down" and "to arrive" sound similar. Therefore, pasting the Character Fu upside-down on a door indicates "good luck arrives".
In additional, two big red lanterns can be raised on both sides of the front door and others red paper-cuttings can be seen on window glass and on the wall.

Family Reunion Dinner
Another special event on Spring Festival is all the members of family gather and dinner together at home. The meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively "ji", "yu" and "doufu," mean auspiciousness, abundance and richness. Not only that, some people will also prepare glutinous rice cakes (Nian Gao) that means better life and dumplings which means rich. After the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting and watching TV. This activity usually called "bai nian" that means say goodbye to the last year.

Spring Festival Party
After dinner, mostly all of them will see the Spring Festival program in the television. In recent years, the Spring Festival party broadcast on China Central Television Station (CCTV) is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad. The event will broadcast for about 5 hours from 8:00 pm till 1:00 am. Amount Chinese famous artist will take part of the concert, sing countless famous songs. Besides that, a lot of interesting traditional Chinese cultural activities could be seen such as, Peking Opera, Chinese traditional Dancing Show, Acrobatic Show, and many others Chinese famous events. 

Spring Festival has become the important traditional festival for Chinese home and abroad. No matter how far the distance from home, each of Chinese people will try their best to come home and gather with family.