Spring Festival Marks China’s Largest Holiday

Written by Dalys Medina, Master of Accountancy Student, Puerto Rico

Jia Zhang is a graduate student in the Master of Science in Analytics program. Her undergraduate studies included studying at both Tianjin Polytechnic University and at BGSU. Jia remained at BGSU to continue her education. She describes her native country’s holiday celebrations.

The Spring Festival is the biggest festival in China and is the most solemn and lively traditional festival. It takes place the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar. "In my memory, the elders prepare for this festival very early,” states Jia.

About one week before the Spring Festival, there is a pre-new year. Grandparents or parents  clean the home on this day, meaning dust removal for the arrival of the new year. The next week, people prepare food for the festival, such as meat and vegetables, because people spend their holidays at home on New Year’s Day since no markets are open.

During Spring Festival, children wear new clothes in the morning, and parents put up the gatepost couplet and hang lanterns.  “It is very interesting to hang the couplets. I remember that my parents used to tell me the story of the door God.”  

After lunch, parents begin to prepare dinner and there is also a custom in Jia’s family that eating dumplings means the family will all be together in the next year.

When dinner is over, her family gathers to watch the Spring Festival Gala Evening by CCTV, and the whole nation is also watching at the same time. In the next half month, relatives visit each other, and children receive many lucky charms from relatives.

On Lantern Festival Day, which is on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, families go to the lantern show and guess riddles. The Lantern Festival officially ends the Chinese New Year celebration.