Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival (春节) is one of the most important traditional Chinese holidays. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month (正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè)(Jan 26th,2009) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th, which is called Lantern Festival(Feb 9th ). Chinese New Year's Eve is known as 除夕 Chúxī.

Chinese New Year is a major holiday for the Chinese in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and other countries or regions with significant Han(汉) Chinese populations, Chinese New Year is also celebrated, and has became part of the traditional culture of these countries.
The most important event of Chinese New Year's Eve is the dinner every family will have. (团圆饭). A dish consisting of raw fish（鱼生） in Malaysia will normally appear on the tables of Chinese families。

The ninth day of the New Year is a day for Chinese to offer prayers to the Jade Emperor of Heaven (天公) in the Taoist Pantheon. The ninth day is traditionally the birthday of the Jade Emperor. This day is especially important to Fujian and Teochews (Min Nan speakers闽南人). Come midnight of the eighth day of the New Year, Fujian will offer thanks giving prayers to the Emperor of Heaven. Offerings will include sugarcane as pronunciation of sugarcane in Fujian dialect (Kam Jia甘蔗) sound like “thank you”(kam xia 感谢) Another saying is that Fujian people were hiding in Sugarcane plantation and survived from certain extermination generations ago.

The fifteenth day of the New Year is celebrated as Yuán xiāo jié (元宵节), otherwise known as Chap Goh Mei in Fujian dialect. This day is celebrated as the Lantern Festival in China and Taiwan, and families are decorated with lighted lanterns. This day often marks the end of the Chinese New Year festivities. There is an interesting fun activity in Penang, Malaysia that takes place includes the throwing of oranges into the sea/river/lake by the maidens in the hope to find their life partner or to make a wish. People believe that by throwing the oranges, it signifies that they are available for marriage, and if someone picks up the floating oranges, the singles who threw it will be able to find a good partner. Though the modern generation youngsters do not believe on this, they are still practicing this as a fun event.

I like to wish all a prosperous Ox year, though it looks like a tough year ahead, as the Chinese saying 年年难过年年过 which mean “Every year looks tough, however we can go through without difficulty”