Sunday, April 10, 2011

Animal Symbolism And Oriental New Year Crafts

By John Chan


Come let us know how the Chinese display their creativity through art work and handicrafts to welcome the New Year.

The Chinese have been making use of the lunar calendar for ages. There are many important days in the Chinese calendar but maybe there is no event more popular and important for the Chinese as is the Chinese New Year.

As per the knowledge we have of the Chinese lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year event is not held on the first of January. Their New Year is absolutely dependent upon the revolution of the moon and hence we see that it falls on a completely different date on the Gregorian solar calendar.

The Chinese New Year is a unique festive time for the Chinese people. The festive mood of the people then are very high and during the entire season, lots of celebrations and activities are seen on the streets of China. While having these celebrations, the Chinese have developed many traditions like making New Year crafts to welcome the New Year.

Amongst the fireworks and feasting are also seen a range of Chinese New Year crafts which are added to show the creativity and innovation present in the master craftsmen of China. They add color and diversity to the on-going festival.

The New Year has a variety of special events such as the fireworks display, the giving of gifts and the lantern festival. Each of these days has its own choices of Chinese crafts that represent the nature of the event. These crafts sell like hot cakes during the New Year season.

All New Years in China is represented by an animal sign, naturally the Chinese New Year crafts too represent the animal in all their crafts. This practice has some useful purposes in Chinese society.

First of all it is a means of keeping this ancient tradition alive. Secondly you have all sorts of artists and craftsmen getting a chance to unleash their creativity along with which they have a great market to make their projects commercially worthwhile during the season.

One of the major purposes that Chinese New Year crafts provide is that they make great gift items for those who are part of the culture. Not only do the crafts inspired by the animal of the year make a great new year's gift rather people often use these gifts to give to people who were born in the year of the same animal.

It is not true that the New Year crafts only cater to the animal symbols. In fact there is a broad spectrum of crafts that are specially made around this time and there is an interesting and magnificent set of fireworks that also belong to the New Year crafts collection.

Lantern crafts of different types are another special New Year variety. The Chinese are into the practice of fortune telling and various such crafts telling you about the luck that is to come your way in the coming year can all be seen being sold in the market. There are a bundle of craft items especially catering to the kids as well during this time of the year.




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