Chinese New Year 2015: Top proverbs and greetings to wish your loved ones good luck

Chinese New Year 2015: Top proverbs and greetings to wish your loved ones good luck

Millions of people across the globe will celebrate the Chinese New Year on 19 February and the start of year 4713.

The Chinese zodiac calendar - known as Sheng Xiao - is divided into 12 cycles. Each cycle lasts 12 months and is represented by an animal. This year, it is the Year of the Goat.

Chinese people greet one another with good wishes when they meet on the New Year.

IBTimes UK has compiled top proverbs and greetings to share with your loved ones.

• Happy Chinese New Year! Wishing you prosperity on the Year of the Ram.
• I wish you all the luck, health, and fortune and all those you love! Happy Chinese New Year.
• Wish you success in your career and happiness for your family! Happy Chinese New Year!
• May the Year of the Goat attract all the good wishes this year. 
• Happy Lunar New Year. Hope all your New Year dreams come true!
• I wish you good health, wealth and luck for the forthcoming year of the Goat!
• Get rid of the demons of the year gone by and embrace the positives to lead a fulfilling and pleasurable life ahead. Wish you good fortune on the Chinese New Year!
• Τhis New Year may good luck and prosperity follow yοu wherever you gο, and may Lady Luck scare away any misfortune that was planning tο come yοur way.
• Harmony brings health. May joy and happiness surround you today and always!
• Happiness, Prosperity, Longevity! (In Mandarin: 福禄寿, pronounced: fú lù shòu)
• Enjoy good health! (In Mandarin: 身体健康; pronounced: Shēntǐ jiànkāng)

Chinese proverbs

1. Patience is power; with time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes silk.
2. When luck visits you, everyone will know where you live.
3. Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
4. To attract good fortune, spend a new coin on an old friend, share an old pleasure with a new friend, and lift up the heart of a true friend by writing his name on the wings of a dragon.
5. If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.
6. Kindness is the best quality of the soul.
7. Frugality is the mother of prosperity.
8. Don't curse the darkness - light a candle.
9. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
10. If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

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Chinese New Year in China

Chinese New Year celebrations, also known as the Spring Festival, in China start on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. The festival lasts for about 23 days, ending on the 15th day of the first lunar month in the following year in the Chinese calendar.

What do people do?

Many people clean their homes to welcome the Spring Festival. They put up the red posters with poetic verses on it to their doors, Chinese New Year pictures on their walls, and decorate their homes with red lanterns. It is also a time to reunite with relatives so many people visit their families at this time of the year.

In the evening of the Spring Festival Eve, many people set off fireworks and firecrackers, hoping to cast away any bad luck and bring forth good luck. Children often receive “luck” money. Many people wear new clothes and send Chinese New Year greetings to each other. Various activities such as beating drums and striking gongs, as well as dragon and lion dances, are all part of the Spring Festival festivities.

Public life

The Spring Festival is a national holiday in China. Government offices, schools, universities and many companies are closed during the period from the Spring Festival Eve to the seventh day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar. However, some enterprises such as banks often arrange for workers to be on shift duty. Public transport is available during the Chinese New Year period.

Background

According to historical documents, on the day when Shun, who was one of ancient China’s mythological emperors, came to the throne more than 4000 years ago, he led his ministers to worship heaven and earth. From then on, that day was regarded as the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar. This is the basic origin of Chinese New Year. China adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1911, so Chinese New Year was renamed the Spring Festival.

Symbols

The red posters with poetic verses on it were initially a type of amulet, but now it simply means good fortune and joy. Various Chinese New Year symbols express different meanings. For example, an image of a fish symbolizes “having more than one needs every year”. A firecracker symbolizes “good luck in the coming year”. The festival lanterns symbolize “pursuing the bright and the beautiful”.

http://www.timeanddate.com

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Nine out of 10 in Chinese New year

Nine out of 10
People born in the year of the sheep do not find happiness in their lives, according to Chinese myth, and anecdotal evidence says that many families delay having children until a more auspicious year rolls around. Nationwide statistics, it should be noted, do not bear out the trend.



http://www.theguardian.com

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Chinese new year 2015 – in numbers

Seven

The number of days most Chinese workers will get off work during the 40-day lunar new year period, giving them a rare chance to spend time with their families. At midnight on Wednesday, hundreds of millions of people will celebrate the end of the year of the horse and the dawn of the year of the sheep. For much of the week, they will dispense with their regular routines to eat dumplings, light fireworks and watch television.

http://www.theguardian.com

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