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 shocked. The reason is that by traditional Chinese custom New Year falls in February beginning as different from what we consider as New Year.
The difference in date concerning New Years is all because Chinese follow lunar calendar. Their New Year depends on the moon cycle rather than the date like 1st of January. The Chinese people celebrate their New Year in a traditional manner where they follow a lot of old customs and it’s a time for joyful celebrations.
Since the start 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.
Traditionally and otherwise the Guo Nian Hao greeting is used to wish everyone for five days after the beginning of lunar year. After five days you are not supposed to wish a New Year greeting according to the tradition. There are other words which are also used to wish New Year along with Guo Nian Hao.
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 coming 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.
Another common greeting that has been part of the traditional set of Chinese New Year greetings is one wishing the other person for an plentiful harvest in the coming year.
There is another form of Chinese New Year greeting which is known as red envelop. According to this the children are given some money in envelop in place of saying any greeting. Red envelop is known to keep evil away from your life in future.
With the coming of modernity the form of New Year greeting is also changing in China. There is no set way of greeting and people wish each other in their own ways. Unlike the ancient times New Year card has become pretty regular form of greeting in today’s China.
The power 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.
The traditional Mandarin Chinese new year greeting has been in use for centuries. If you are looking for info on Chinese new year for kids please click on the hyperlinks.
