​Publications

About Staying Up on New Year’s Eve (守歲 shǒu suì) Staying up on New Year’s Eve is widely known, and everyone understands it as not sleeping through the entire night of Lunar New Year’s Eve, also called “going through the whole year.” From the structure of the character “歲” (year), it appears as a great deity with one foot above and one foot below, carrying a halberd on the shoulder. Some say this deity is Jupiter; others say it is the deity in charge of the year. The second ex

2. About New Year’s Eve (除夕) The same story has also confused the meaning of New Year’s Eve. It is said that “Xi” (夕) was a wild beast that came to villages on the night of the thirtieth day of the lunar year to eat people. People would set off firecrackers to drive it away, so the night was called “chú xī” (除夕). This explanation is truly irresponsible and harmful to future generations. In oracle bone script, the character Xi (夕) actually evolved from the character Moon (月)

I. The Origins of the Chinese New Year Festival The Chinese New Year Festival is the most important festival of Chinese people and serves as a spiritual anchor of the Chinese culture. In this era, when Chinese culture has been fragmented under the impact of Western culture, Chinese people are familiar only with Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Carnival, and Halloween. Traditional Chinese festivals have long been forgotten, and only the Chinese New Year Festival still holds the las