This Spring Festival, Jia Huiru plans to buy some posters with the Chinese character 'fu' (happiness) to paste up around her home to greet her relatives who are expected for a gathering. The festival comes with the Chinese New Year. It starts on February 12 this year, which is the Year of the Horse.
Even though the 50-year-old Ms Jia has seen a lot of these festivals, she still has the spirit, or 'the habit of putting up New Year's decorations to make things more festive.' She said they remind her of happier times several decades ago.
She was born into a worker's family in 1952, three years after the founding of the New China, after several years of war. It not an easy time, but she said she has good memories of her childhood. And Spring Festival was one of the happiest. That was just about the only time of the year she and her sisters and their little brother could expect any new clothes or candies. Those were fairly grim times for many Chinese.
The Spring Festival lasts about 15 days, from the 1st to the 15th of the lunar month. Often, preparations can start a month earlier. The women of the house traditionally swept the rooms to make a clean start and bought fish, fruits, and enough vegetables and meat to make jiaozi (dumplings) or mantou (steamed bread) and enough dishes for a family feast.
Dumplings are still the standard symbol of the festival and are absolutely essential. Fish, or 'yu' in Chinese, are also necessary. That is because the word for surplus also happens to be pronounced 'yu' and the Chinese believe that any surplus (from the previous year) means a better harvest and more fortune for the new year.
On the final day of the outgoing year, both sides of the doorframe (or gateway, in the case of a traditional house with a courtyard) get decorated with auspicious sounding couplets and colourful bits of paper cut in various shapes. Windows and walls get the same treatment.
