Chinese New Year sweeping

"On the 24th of Na month, sweep the house" is a folk adage which describes another Chinese New Year custom. Na month means lunar December. According to the Chinese history book "Nv's springs and autumns", the custom has existed since the times of Yao and Shun, who are two of the earliest leaders of Chinese tribe confederacy.

The custom is also called as "Shao Chen" in Chinese. "Shao" means sweeping. "Chen" means dirt. "Chen" is a homophone of "the old things", so the custom has the implicit meaning as sweeping away the old things. This meaning compliances just with the meaning of Chinese New Year, that is, cleaning away all the bad lucks in the old year.

On the 24th of lunar December, every Chinese family washes their house, fornitures, vessels, bedclothes, etc. and cleans the environment around. People are busy and happy. The festive atmosphere has become very strong at the time. 

Chinese New Year decoration ideas

Chinese New Year decoration must be festive, auspicious and not violate a taboo. Man can use some traditional Chinese New Year elements for the decoration. These elements can be red and round lanterns, delicate and beautiful palace lanterns, couplets written on red paper, Chinese New Year pictures, Chinese New Year papercuttings, Chinese New Year plants and Chinese New Year blessing words. It is not necessary to have all of these. However, man should have some of the most typical, because they are symbols of Chinese New Year.

The ranking of the most common Chinese New Year decorations is listed belowed:
No 1. Chinese New Year blessing word, 福, written on red paper.
This decoration is used by almost all Chinese families, enterprisers and organizations. With other words, in almost every building in China you can see one or more this decoration during Chinese New Year festival.

No 2. Chinese New Year red lantern
This decoration is the most popular on public places, such as streets, public buildings, squares, shopping malls, etc. where there are big people traffics.

No 3. Chinese New Year flower
Chinese New Year flowers are popular for families, enterprises and organizations. In the warm regions, Chinese New Year flowers are as popular as Chinese New Year lanterns on public places, while Chinese New Year flowers are popular in private homes everywhere in China.

No 4. Chinese New Year couplet
Chinese New Year couplets are among the most common decorations outside the cities in China. However, it is also usual to see Chinese New Year couplets beside the front doors of private homes or other buildings in the cities, although they appear less often than Chinese New Year lanterns and Chinese New Year flowers.

No 5. Chinese New Year picture and papercutting
These decorations are very common outside the cities in China.

No 6. Colorful clothes on Children
On Chinese New Year, everyone is expected to put on clean and fine clothes. Many parents put new clothes in auspicious colors, such as red, yellow, golden, etc, on their small children.    

Chinese New Year park

Chinese, especially families with small children, like much to visit parks during Chinese New Year holiday. In the period the parks are decorated with many lanterns, colorful flags and celebration patterns composed of plants. In addition, some parks provide exciting exhibitions or shows to the public. In the warm south areas, flower exhibitions in parks is one of the most usual celebration programs.

Chinese parks have generally many visitors whole year long. On early morning many people do their morning gym in parks. On daytime penionists and tourists are the main visitors. Many penionsts organize their own hobby groups and entertainment activities in parks. They dance, sing, play instruments, play card or cheese and so on. There are also many other penionsts who just sit in the park to meet and chat with their friends.

In Chinese New Year holiday parks are more beautiful and more crowdy. The festive atmosphere is everywhere in the parks.

Chinese New Year Heaven God

According to Chinese mythology, Heaven God is the highest God and controls everything in universal. Heaven God has been existing in Chinese culture since the beginning of Chinese civilization. He doesn't belong to any religion. He is actually a symbol of Chinese traditional naturism. Ancient Chinese thought Heaven God was the maker of all natural laws. All Chinese emperors, including those earliest kings, such as Yao, Sun and Yu for about 5000 years ago, worshipped Heaven God.

Chinese emperors worshipped Heaven God in Chinese New Year. They held addtionally extra Heaven God worships when they thought it was necessary. For instanser, In Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperors worshipped Heaven God also on every winter solstice. The famous Heaven Temple in Beijing was the place to hold the grand royal worships to Heaven God on the winter solstices.

Ancient Chinese belived worshipping was the way to communicate with Heaven God. They presented meat, corn, fruit, flowers, etc to Heaven God on the worship ceremonies to express their reverence, and hoped that Heaven God would fullfill their wishes. It was also belived that an emperor was a representor of Heaven God, and the prays of an emperor would most possibly heard by Heaven God.     

Chinese New Year dumpling-Jiaozi

Dumpling-Jiaozi is a necessary food for Chinese New Year celebration in northern China, where all family members sitting together to make Jiaozi is an traditional program of family reunion on Chinese New Year's Eve. Jiaozi is homophone of "the beginning of Zi-time". Zi is the first Shicheng of everyday. Shicheng is a Chinese ancient time unit. In ancient China, people divide a day into 12 Shicheng. 1 Shicheng is equal to 2 hours of the current international time system. The name Jiaozi means originally exactly "the beginning of Zi-time". Today, it is just the name of the the famous food. However, many northern Chinese families still eat Jiaozi at Zi-time of Chinese New Year day.

Jiaozi was made of wrapper of wheat flour and filling. Man can use any food material to make filling. Mostly Jiaozi-filling is made of meat and several kinds of vegetables. Jiaozi-wrapper is thin and soft, and the filling is rich in taste. Even today most Chinese still think jiaozi is the most tasty Chinese food.

Chinese have already almost 2000 years' history of eating Jiaozi. Jiaozi was created by an famous Chinese doctor, Zhang Zhongjin (about 150 - 215),  in East-Han dynasty. He saw that many poor people got cold-injury in their ears in winter and decided to help them. Han made a medicine with mutton and some herb-medecine, and packed the medicine with thin wrapper made of wheat-flour dough. To get more attention, he made the food in the form of ear and called it as "soft ear". Soft ear pronunciated in "Jiao Er" in Chinese. This pronunciation is similiar with "Jiao Zi". It is not impossible that the custom of eating Jiaozi at Zi-time was developed with inspiration getting from the pronuciation of the name "Jiao Er". He provided the food free to the poor and had helped many. Because jiaozi was very tasty, it became a kind of common food very soon.

Although it looks complicate, it is actually very easy to make Jiaozi. Man only needs to divide the wheat flour dough into small parts, make each part flat and some round with a dough stick and pack some filling with the wrapper. The wrapper is thin and soft, so it is very easy to be wrapped together and formed to the expected form. In northern China, small children started to learn making Jiaozi when they are 3-4 years old. For them making Jiaozi with the adualt is just a funny game. It is a common family entertainment in northern China that family members sit together and make Jiaozi. They often competite who is the cleverest on making Jiaozi to increase the fun. Such a happy scene probably is also a reason people in northern China choose jiaozi as a necessary Chinese New Year food.

Chinese New Year recipes: Four happy balls

Material:

Minced pork 500 g, rice flour 100 g, waternuts 100 g, lettuce 100 g, 2 eggs, 1 soup spoon of rice wine, 1 soup spoon of black soy sauce, 2 tea spoons of salt, 1/3 tea spoon of ginger, 1/4 tea spoon of pepper powder, 1/4 tea spoon of MG, 1 tea spoon of sugar, cooking oil

Method: 

1. Cut the waternuts into small bits. Cut the lettuce into pieces. Mix the minced pork, waternut bits, rice flour, 2 tea spoons of salt, ginger powder, eggs, rice wine and MG. Mix 1 soup spoon of rice flour and 50 ml of water.
2. Divide the meat mixture into four parts. Make each part into a ball.
3. Fill 1/2 part of a pan with cooking oil. Warm the cooking oil to 50% cooked. Put the balls into the pan, fry with moderately slow oven until the balls become a little brown. Take the meat balls out from the pan. Let the oil drained as much as possible from them
4. Discard the oil in the pan. Fill 1/2 part of the pan with water. Put the balls, sugar,1/3 tea spoon of salt,  soy sauce and 1/4 tea spoon of MG in the pan.Cook with quick oven. When the water boils, switch to moderately slow oven.
5. When the sauce is almost dry. Take the balls out from the pan. Put them on the lettuce pieces.
6. Put the saue of step 1 in the pan. Cook with quick oven. When the sauce boils. Switch to moderately slow oven. Cook for 30 seconds. Pour it on the balls.

Chinese New Year Kitchen God

Kitchen God is one of the five Gods who protect the households, according to Chinese mytheology. Chinese started to worship Kitchen God since Yao and Sun's time, which is over 4000 years ago.

Chinese worship Kitchen God around the 23th of December of lunar year. It is said that Kitchen God visits Heaven God on the 24th of december and returns back to Earth on the 6th of lunar January. During his staying in the heaven palace, he reports about what the families did in the last year to Heaven God, who decides what punishments or rewards the families should get. So people worship Kitchen God with many sweet food to hope that he speaks only good words about them. Some people even worship Kitchen God with vinass to hope that Kitchen God becomes drunk and can't remember the bad things they did in the old year. Except sweet food, people burn food and horses made of paper and the old pictures of Kitchen God. All these actions symbolize that they send off Kitchen God kindly to his jouney. On the 6th of lunar January, people put on the new pictures of Kitchen God to welcome him back.
The figures of Kitchen God are not always same among different regions in China. However, they are generally the figures of famous persons, such as famous heroes or persons with outstanding virtues. The most common Kitchen God figure is Guan Yu, a famous general lived about 2000 years ago. He was admired by Chinese for his outstanding battle skills and loyality. People believe that he is responsible and competent enough to be Kitchen God.