1、The Spring Festival,Member,阿宁呀 阿宁呀 阿宁呀,Contents,One. Spring Festival originTwo. Spring Festival customs,The Spring Festival is the most popular traditional festival in China.A long time ago, there lived an ancient monster called “Nian”.It deep in the seabed, every years to New Years eve just climbed
2、 out, swallowed cattle and damaged lives. So on this day people will flee to the mountains to avoid years of harm. But there was an old beggar on New Years eve,the people in the village were too busy to escape.Only an old women gave him food and urged him to avoid the“Nian”. The old man said with sm
3、ile: “ if let me stay at home all night, and Ill get it away.“,One. Spring Festival origin,The old woman continued to persuade, but the old man smiled without a word. At midnight, “Nian“ rush into village. It found that the atmosphere in the village was different from previous years. The old womens
4、house sticked red paper and candle light inside bright. When it was near the door, there was a noise in the yard, and it was too frightened to go forward. Then the door opened and it saw the old man smiling in red.”Nian” ran away in terror.The matter spread quickly around the village,and people knew
5、 how to drive it. Since then, on New Years eve, people put up red couplets, firecrackers.,One. Spring Festival origin,There are a few things about Spring Festival customs. Sweeping the Dust,“Dust”is homophonic with “chen”(陈) in Chinese, which means old and past.In this way， “sweeping the dust” befor
6、e the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. This custom shows a good wish of putting away old things to welcome a new life.In a word， just before the Spring Festival comes every household will give a thorough cleaning to bid farewell to the old
7、year and usher in the new.,Pasting Spring Couplets“The Spring Couplet”， also called “couplet” , is a special form of literature in China. The Spring Couplet is composed of two antithetical sentences on both sides of the door ,usually an auspicious phrase ,above the gate. The sentence pasting on the
8、right side of the door is called the first line of the couplet and the one on the left the second line .On the eve of the Spring Festival,every household will paste on doors a spring couplet written on red paper to give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival.In the past， the Chinese usual
9、ly wrote their own spring couplet with a brush or asked others to do for them， while nowadays, it is common for people to buy the printed spring couplet in the market.,Staying Up Late on New Years EveThe tradition of staying up late to see New Year in originated from an interesting folk tale. In anc
10、ient China there lived a monster named Year,who was very ferocious. Year always went out from its burrow on New Years Eve to devour people. Therefore, on every New Years Eve,every household would have supper together. After dinner,no one dared go to sleep and all the family members would sit togethe
11、r,chatting and emboldening each other. Gradually the habit of staying up late on New Years Eve is formed. Thus in China,“ celebrating the Spring Festival” is also called “passing over the year ”.However, now there are less and less people in cities who will stay up late to see New Year in.,Pasting N
12、ew Year PrintsThe custom of pasting New Year Prints originated from the tradition of placing Door Gods on the external doors of houses.With the creation of board carvings,New Year paintings cover a wide range of subjects. The most famous ones are Door Gods, Surplus Year after Year,Three Gods of Bles
13、sing, Salary and Longevity, An Abundant Harvest of Crops, Thriving Domestic Animals and Celebrating Spring. Now the tradition of pasting New Year paintings is still kept in rural China， while it is seldom followed in cities.,The CCTV New Years GalaThe New Years Gala is a variety show held by CCTV si
14、nce 1983. For every year since then at the turn of the Lunar New Year, the program begins at 8:00PM and lasts five or six hours.It brings laughter to billions of people, creates many popular words and produces lots of TV phenomena meriting attention. For over twenty years,its value has gone far beyo
15、nd a variety show.It is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad.,Having dumplingsOn New Years Eve,the whole family will sit together to make dumplings and celebrate the Spring Festival.The tradition of having dumplings is very important during the Spring Festival.,Thank you for listening,
