he Spring Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, which lasts for roughly half a month. During the two weeks, we celebrate the festival in a variety of forms. As I am a typical Shanghainese, I would like to introduce how my family celebrates the Spring Festival.

Maybe many of you are very curious about why we have such a “festival”, so let us take a look at the history of this traditional festival. It is said that a long time ago existed a monster called “xi”, the monster ate the children so people were fear for their and their children’s safety. Winter came and the monster appeared, and it grabbed many children. Then a God called “nian” appeared, he used lantern and firecrackers to drive the monster away, and of course, the monster escaped quickly. People believed “nian” a big hero so we celebrate it as “Guo nian”, and the traditional Chinese New Year’s Eve is named “chu xi”(drive away the monster).

Before the Spring Festival, we will buy all kinds of food, for snack, for dishes, for storage, things like nuts, dried meat, probably a big purchase in the market. We take bags of things home, as the preparation for the festival. Here are some special days which we have specific activities.

Traditional Chinese New Year’s Eve (除夕)

My father, for the most part, prepares for the dishes at night at this day, and buys those so called “Spring Festival food”, for instance, in our family, fried fish with sweet sauce, honey lotus root with sticky rice, pork ribs in sweet and sour sauce. Traditionally, we prefer adding a little bit sweet flavor into their dishes, and that is our well-known “sugar-vinegar”(糖醋) flavor. My mother is usually busy with doing all the cleanings; sweeping all the dirty to welcome the new. We will invite some of our relatives to come to have dinner together. And the Spring Festival Gala is on the New Year’s Eve too, when we finish our dinner, we gather around the television, chatting and laughing, enjoying our own family time.

The first day of lunar month

It is the first day in Chinese New Year. We usually visit our relatives. Chinese really have lots of people to meet. We wish them a happy new year. For the kids, they can receive lots of “red pockets”, just as its name implies: a red pocket filling with money, that’s a kind of blessing from the elder to the young. It is also considered that the red pockets can drive away the evil and let the children grow healthy.  When I grow up to an adult and have my own source of finance, also, I have to prepare red pockets myself. For the next several days, we still have to meet different relatives, my family probably spends one day in one home.

The fourth day of lunar month

This day is known as the God of Stove will come down to see every family. Usually, we will prepare a typical sweet rice cake, putting it on the stove. We hope that the God of Stove eat those things and his teeth were stuck by those rice cakes so that he won’t say bad of you when he report his work to the big God, and as the rice cakes are sweet, so he is likely to say something sweet, to leave a good impression to the big God, so during the next year, people won’t being in hunger.

The fifth day of lunar month

This day is known for the time we welcome The God of Wealth. We set fireworks to meet him as we consider that the sound should be loud enough to let him hear. Unfortunately, we are forbidden to set fireworks in downtown area from now on, but we can still enjoy the fireworks show in the designated area. Fireworks enjoy a long history and have played an important role in Chinese’s life. We have it played on weddings, something’s completion, movements (especially home movements). Because of a variety of reasons, we are not able to welcome the God of Wealth in our traditional way, but we can still have this willing inside our mind, and I think the God of Wealth will probably hear that.

The eighth day of lunar month

It may sound strange to others because some of shanghaines bought living beings and send them back to nature. Usually fish, turtles, you can see such activities in some old towns; there exists a pond which is for people to send those beings. It is alike to the method of Buddhism, and it is believed as an action of collecting virtues.

The fifteenth day of lunar month

It is known as the Lantern Festival. We will have rice dumplings this day. Usually my family prepares the rice dumplings ourselves. From the flour to the filings, we enjoy the process, though I’m still poor at making it. In recent years triggered an argument over whether rice dumplings should be sweet or salty which nearly drives me mad. In my opinion, the flavor doesn’t matter. What it really matters is the emotions, the feelings in the rice dumplings that count. This day is also considered the day which can foresee the harvest of a year’s crop, if it rains, that probably leads to bad crop, if the sun shines, that may leads to a good harvest. And now the tradition gives way to enjoying the lights. In Yu Garden in shanghai, there will be a lanterns’ party, people can enjoy the different lanterns and have a guess at the riddles on the lantern, usually short but interesting, and people can exchange their answers into small gifts that was what I experienced in my childhood.

The author is an undergraduate student of Swedish studies at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU).