Spring Festival is the Chinese New Year. It has been celebrated① all over China since ancient times. The festival is on the first day of the first month in the Chinese lunar calendar②.
People begin to prepare for it several days before the new year.
They clean their houses and buy decorations and different kinds of food. Every family prepares something special to eat.
The celebrations start on New Year's Eve, the last day of the previous lunar year. During the day, people plaster their doors with drawings of the God of wealth③, red paper characters like "福"(good luck) and so on.
In the evening every family hold a feast. All the members of the family try to return home for the meal, no matter how far away they are. They sit together, eating delicious food, talking about interesting things and enjoying wonderful programmes on TV. If someone finds a coin in their dumplings, it means they'll have good luck in the new year. After dinner, people stay up until midnight to welcome the new year with fireworks④.
On New Year's Day, people get up very early. They wear new clothes and say "Happy New Year" to each other. In the next few days they are busy visiting their relatives and friends.
Children like doing this, because they can get a lot of money from older friends and relatives. Dragon dances, yangge dances⑤ and other performances are also parts of the celebrations which last for 15 days. Debts are settled, quarrels are forgotten and everybody is happy.
People wish each other good luck and hope each new year is better than the last.
