Introduction

With Chinese New Year still halfway through, I thought I'd share a brief introduction of what it means, at least according to me, with all our fellows in the Steemit community!

This year we celebrate the Year of the Dog! - which follows the Zodiac sequence if it wasn't obvious enough. And what a controversial year it's been for all of us here in Malaysia because the dog is considered dirty and unclean in Muslim culture. But what are the origins of Chinese New Year? Why do all Chinese - or more accurately, most Eastern Asian cultures - celebrate this festival?

Origins of Chinese New Year

While discussing this topic with my fellow Chinese colleagues in the company, we came to realise that we grew up with slightly different stories for Chinese New Year.

The Nian (年) Beast

This version tells the story long ago in China, where there was a beast that devastated villages at the turn of each lunar New Year. This beast was called "Nian (年)" which also means "Year" in English.

One year, just before the beast came. An old man appeared in the village and asked the villagers "Why do you fear the beast? You are many but he is one." The villagers did not believe him and still feared the beast. So, the old man helped to scare away the beast.

After a few days, the old man said "I can't protect you forever". He revealed himself to be a god and he taught the villagers how to fend for themselves. They must wear red and color the village red, light fireworks to brighten the sky and must make loud noises with drums and music to scare away the beast.

This scared away the beast and became a yearly tradition that has today become Chinese New Year, or Guo Nian (过年

The Kitchen Gods

The version that I heard growing up was that Chinese New Year was when the Kitchen Gods would go up to heaven to report the behaviour and sins of each family to the Heavenly King.

Why we have feasts and festivals is to keep the Kitchen Gods happy and to bribe them with food so that they only tell the Heavenly King of our good deeds. We also serve the Kitchen Gods Nian Gao (粘糕 sticky cake, which sounds like 年糕 year cake ), a super sweet and sticky glutinous rice dessert so that the Kitchen Gods' mouth will be glued shut with the sticky dessert.

Typical Chinese New Year Traditions

Every family usually have their own Chinese New Year routines, but there are somethings that are still the same. Here are some of the typical no-no's of Chinese New Year:

1. No sweeping the floor or cleaning the house - washing away good luck
2. No washing hair (发) - washing away fortune (发财)
3. Don’t eat porridge - it’s a sign of poverty
4. Don’t break glass - sign of bad luck. Must say Sui Sui Ping An (岁岁平安) which means "Years of Peace" because it sounds like Sui Sui Ping An (碎碎平安) which means "Peaceful Shattering"
5. Must wear Red - to scare away the Nian monster and bring blessings
6. Can’t wear Black - color of Death

Chinese New Year also involves a lot of eating, drinking, gambling and fireworks. It's truly a joyous event until....the family reunion where the relatives we only see once a year get together.

How many more years are you going to collect Angpao? (only singles collect Angpao)
Got girlfriend already or not?
Faster get married la
Why la you so fat?
So fat, that’s why no girlfriend la

Maybe that's why drinking and gambling are so common during Chinese New Year. It's to wash away the pain...