Discover the beauty and intricacy with which the Chinese people decorate their houses and streets to welcome the coming New Year.
In the lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year plays a vital role and you wouldn’t be surprised to see Chinese families decorating their dwellings with various Chinese New Year crafts made for this particular festival. From inside the houses to outsides on the city roads, China shines in color throughout the season.
Few of the New Year decorations seen are pretty flowers to platters of food and some other variety of decorations that arereserved for the festival. There are certain decorative items that have become signs to mark this time of the year. The collection of decorating items is wide and colorful.
Plants and flowers play a significant role in the New Year decorations in China. Besides Chinese people are known for their attachment to the nature. During the New Years event, houses of Chinese people are seen blooming with different flowers and plants that symbolize growth and prosperity that promise to come in the coming year.
For decorating purposes, the most commonly used plants and flowers are the plum blossoms at such times. This is because, they just start to blossom during this season and they are arranged beautifully together with bamboo and pine springs. This represents a special closeness between families and friends around this time.
The two symbolic values the plum blossoms are supposed to represent are reliability and tenacity. The compatibility factor is represented by the bamboo due to its flexible nature and the evergreen nature of pine is a traditional mark of longevity. Other flowers used also are azalea, water lily, narcissus, and peony.
Even particular kinds of fruits play an eminent role in the New Year decoration symbols and every household in China needs to have it. Oranges and tangerines are the first preference in the list and generally brought as presents by visiting friends. To maintain happiness and long relationship tangerines are usually meant to symbolize such emotions.
The best thing of the Chinese New Year is probably the candy tray. At least adolescents would agree to it. Especially designed trays are brought and cadies are placed on them during this time. This sweet treat is also known as the tray of togetherness and it is piled with various delectable candies.
Another tradition practiced with the candy tray is that whenever an adult takes a candy, he places a red envelope that contains some type of a good luck charm in it for the members of the house on the tray. Candied melons are the most popular object on the tray accompanied by coconuts, lychee nut, cumquat and peanuts etc. which have their own meanings.
The New Year decoration items are mostly focused on the particular animal symbol that represents that particular year. This Chinese tradition is prevalent for ages now and is still practiced.
Chinese new year decorations come in a wide array of shapes and sizes. If you want to learn about other Chinese new year activities follow the hyperlinks herein.
