Yen: Happy Dragon Year

Happy Dragon Year ^^

Actually Chinese New Year has a great history. In other traditions, by this time in the year, most resolutions have been easily forgotten and placed in a cupboard marked as "maybe next year." The origin of the Chinese New Year is itself centuries old-in fact, too old to actually be traced. It is popularly recognized as the Spring Festival and celebrations last 15 days. Preparations will tend to begin a month from the date of the Chinese New Year. During this period, people will start buying presents, decoration materials, clothing and some biscuit. Moreover, a huge clean-up gets underway days before the Chinese New Year. The houses are cleaned from top to bottom, to sweep away any traces of bad luck, a red colour coat of painting will apply on the doors and windowpanes. Apart from that, the doors and windows will be decorated with some colourful paper cuts and couplets with themes such as happiness, longevity and others.

Well, Chinese New Year eve perhaps is the most exciting part of the event, as anticipation creeps in. Here, traditions and rituals are very carefully observed in everything from food to clothing. Dinner is usually a feast of seafood and dumplings, signifying different good wishes. Delicacies include prawns which symbol as liveliness and happiness's, dried oysters symbol as all things are good, Yu sheng is to bring good luck and prosperity, dumplings boiled in water also signifying a long last good wish for a family. In addition, we are normally wear something red as this colour is meant to ward off evil spirits. After finished our reunion dinner, our family will always sit up for the night playing cards, board games or watching TV programmes dedicated to the occasion. At midnight, the sky is lit up a lot of colourful fireworks.

Traditionally, the origins of the Chinese New Year Festival can be trace back thousands of years through a continually evolving series of colourful legends and traditions. One of the most famous legends is that of the loin-like monster's name was Nian (年) which is also the Chinese word for "year". Furthermore, the stories also all included a wise old man who guidance the villagers to defend against the evil Nian by making loud noises with drums and firecrackers, hanging red paper couplets are posted on doors. This is because for some reason, the Nian is scared of the colour red. The villagers took the old man's advice and the Nian was conquered. Therefore, during anniversary of the date, the Chinese recognized the "passing of the Nian" known in Chinese as "guo nian", which is also synonymous with celebrating the new year.

Sky lamp Chinese lantern, also called as Kongming Lantern, it is a air bone paper lanterns that can be tradition found in some Asian cultures. They are made up from oiled rich paper on a bamboo frame and inside contain either a small candle or fuel cell composed of a waxy flammable material. The air inside the lantern will be lit up and thus lowering its density causing the lantern to rise into the air. The sky lantern is only airborne for as long as the flame stays alight, after which the lantern sinks back to the ground. Traditionally, the Kongming lantern was the first hot air balloon, said to be invented by the Chinese sage and military strategist Zhuge Liang, whose reverent term of address was Kongming.