Spring Festival, Lunar New Year in China

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Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

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7,583

Video Title

Spring Festival, Lunar New Year in China

Description

To celebrate Earth’s complete one-year rotation around the sun, people around the world celebrate the new year with fireworks, family, and festivities. One of the most famous of the world’s New Year’s festivals is the Spring Festival in China, where celebrations begin on New Year’s Eve of the lunar New Year and lasts for fifteen days. The lantern festival takes place on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and it marks the end of the New Year celebration. The Spring Festival period is also an important holiday for families. People traveling back to their hometowns within China to visit their family make New Year’s one of the world’s largest annual migrations, known as chunyun or spring travel. Family meals are prepared by elders. One mealtime tradition is to place a small item, usually a coin or jujube, into one of the dumplings. If someone gets the coin, it means that person will have good financial luck in the New Year, whereas a jujube would signify romantic luck. The ancient Chinese technology of fireworks was used as a way to scare off evil spirits during the Spring Festival. The tradition continues today as a symbol for a joyful time of year. Learn more about Spring Festival: https://s.si.edu/2V6Bb9k Learn more about Lantern Festival: https://s.si.edu/34zRWNg Editing: Jackson Harvey [Catalog No. CFV11272; © 2019 Smithsonian Institution]

Video Duration

1 min 55 sec

YouTube Keywords

culture music performance tradition folk language festival smithsonian "washington dc"

Uploaded

2020-04-15T00:06:44.000Z

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YouTube Videos

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smithsonianfolklife

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

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smithsonianfolklife

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People & Blogs

Topic

Cultural property

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yt_6ikCljLR7IA

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