People across China have been celebrating the advent of the traditional Lunar New Year's eve since Tuesday night and the ensuing week-long holiday, saying goodbye to the year of Monkey and welcome the year of Rooster.
Hundreds of millions of people, mostly rural laborers and students, have returned home after onerous trips before the new year's eve, the most important time for family reunion even for members living or working afar.
"I've heard plenty of complaint about the festival -- too long dinners and too much liquor, firecracker noise, restless visits. However, I still think this is the happiest moment of a year when the whole family sit around table, eating 'Jiaozi' (dumpling)," said Cheng Ding, a computer engineer working in southern China's Guangdong Province and just back home in Beijing.
Unlike Cheng, orphans and waifs in Shijiazhuang, capital of northern China's Hebei Province, had their New Year Eve dinner with the local government officials and social workers.
To provide a "home" for these children, local government set up the country's first children protection and education center for waifs and young beggars in 2002 and so far the center has received more than 350 kids.
Wednesday was also a special day for Tibetan. According to the traditional Tibetan calendar, the day is also the New Year's Day of the year of Wooden Rooster,
In southwest China, Tibetan families gathered together and had a special wheaten dish, "Gutu", which is cooked with mutton, carrot, and beans, while praying for good luck in the new year.
Despite regional or ethnic differences, majority of Chinese people awaited the new year in front of the television while watching a five-hour TV performance produced by China Central Television. The gala party in fact has become a "course" of their family dinner since it debuted in 1983.
Since 1998 the show has been broadcast live over the Internet, as well as on CCTV's two international channels, offering real-time entertainment for all Chinese across the world.
At midnight, burst of firecrackers reverberated across the country. Traditionally, it is believed that the noise could scare away evil spirits.
In addition, short message service (SMS) have replaced telephone calls and postcards to become the most popular way for new year's greeting to the friends and relatives.
It is estimated that over 10 billion greeting messages will be sent during the seven-day lunar New Year holiday season which began on February 9, said industry sources.
The increasing number of Chinese choose to travel during the Spring Festival holiday season. Travel agencies in Beijing alone organized 280,000 people to tour overseas last year.
"The number this year will surely be much higher and the most popular overseas destinations for Beijingers this year are Australia, New Zealand and several tropical islands," said Dun Jidong, marketing manager of Overseas Department of China Travel Service Head Office.
The rooster sign is the tenth in a 12-year cycle on the Chinese calendar that starts with rat, followed by ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and ends with pig.
(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2005)
