Saturday, April 16, 2011

New Year Greeting Form The Orient

By John Chan


Find out about the traditional and modern ways of greeting each other on the event of the Chinese New Year.

Guo Nian Hao signifies Happy New Year in Chinese language. You will receive a lot of this if you are visiting China during the beginning of the year. But if you are visiting China in February you would still get the same greeting and you may be surprised. The reason is that by ancient Chinese custom New Year falls in February beginning as different from what we consider as New Year.

This is because the Chinese follow the lunar calendar which works according to the cycles of the moon. So the 1st of January is not their New Year's Day rather it has to do with the cycle of the moon. The occasion of Chinese New Year is a festive and momentous occasion when all sorts of ancient traditions are brought back to life so as to keep them ticking.

Since the beginning of the lunar year is an important occasion you will observe everybody to be greeting each other irrespective of whether they know the person or not. Go to any market place and you will have the entire staff wishing you Guo Nian Hao. In fact this is the voice of the nation during the festive season.

According to Chinese culture the New Year is celebrated for five days in the beginning of the year. As such the greeting like Guo Nian Hao is used only for this time period after which it is traditionally not proper to wish anyone. Also there are other Chinese words which means New Year too which are used for wishing at this time.

The Chinese New Year is a time for celebration when they pray to god and fills their minds with hope for health and wealth for the approaching year for their fellow human beings and themselves. They go about wishing everybody success and congratulating them in their language using words like Gonxi Facai; Hokkien Keong hee huat chye.

As New Year represent everything good the Chinese people also pray for a good amount of crop harvest in the coming year and they use certain terms to wish abundant crops to everyone in future.

During Chinese New Year they use another form of wishing the best for the coming year with red envelop but it is not verbal greeting. This envelop contains money which is given to the children in hope of keeping the evil things away.

Changing times have given rise to new traditions with regards to Chinese New Year greetings. Every one has their own ways of greeting each other. The use of greeting cards has flourished during recent years although this practice has never been part of the ancient tradition.

The influence of Internet has slowly changed the concept of New Year in China and now people send e-card for wishing New Year to one another. As for the government, it wishes the entire population by holding firework display.




About the Author:



No comments: