New Year's Eve
Updated: 2005-01-25

Chuxi (New Year’s Eve) is the last evening of the twelfth lunar month. In Chinese, Chu literally means remove or change, and Xi means night. Thus Chuxi implies that the old year ends at this night, and the new one begins tomorrow.

The reunion dinner, sacrificing to the ancestors, watching Spring Festival Party on CCTV , and staying up till 12 o'clock, are the major activity in Chuxi.

A reunion dinner is held among family members, ranging in size from as many as ten courses, to small and simple. Dumplings, stews, pig's head, boiled eggs, and fish are some of various kinds of food served on New Year's Eve dinner in China. Other dishes such as chicken, fish and beancurd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively "ji", "yu" and "doufu ," mean auspiciousness, abundance and richness.

After the dinner, the whole family sit together, chatting and watching TV, and stay stay up late till the morning to guard the year. The houses are lit up brightly with lamps both outside and inside of the house.

Another custom still practiced in modern China on New Year's Eve is cleaning the house. This is done to welcome the coming of the New Year.

On each New Year's Eve, each family also sticks on their doors spring couplets and blow up firecrackers. Early in the morning of the 1st of the first lunar month they go to their relatives and friends' to send their regards and congratulations.

Author: Jessie