CHINESE FESTIVALS

Chinese New Year  

myMalaysiabooks brings you Chinese festivals of Malaysia and Singapore.

About Chinese Year Year 2008 is year of the Rat     In Chinese Astrology, the Chinese calendar has a twelve year cycle and each year is named after an animal – forming the 12 animal signs. All information about time – year, month, day and hour are presented in terms of the five basic elements – metal, water, wood, fire and earth, which represents the basic components of everything in the Universe. The year 2008, in the Hsia calendar, is symbolized by two elements – with earth sitting on top of water. 2008 is Year of the brown Rat? The Rat belongs to the strongest water element and it is the first of the 12 animal signs. It also represents the beginning of a new 12 years cycle. The Year 2008 is a the Brown Earth Rat Year - As Earth is equivalent to the colour brown in the Five-Element system, 2008 is also called the Brown Rat year.

Chinese New Year (Jan/Feb) is Asia's most widely celebrated festival.  Its a celebration for Chinese not only in Malaysia and Singapore but all over the world. Chinese New Year is the first day of  the year according to the Chinese lunar calendar.     Before the old year ends, it is a custom for Chinese to spring clean or even paint their houses. Actual celebrations starts on the day before the new year, where family members gather for a reunion dinner. Many Chinese Malaysians will travel back to their hometown or family homes for this day. The reunion dinner is the a major celebration and gathering for the family - a once a year affair for many who have children working out of town. Many Taoists and Buddhist Chinese will go to the temple to pray for blessings for a good year.     Temples are also crowed in the morning of the New Year where many offer prayers to ancestors and gods and ask for blessing for a good year. On Chinese New Year day relatives and friends visit each other to offer their good wishes and it is customary to give mandarin oranges during a visit, as a token of good luck and prosperity. New year gifts of food (s.a. cookies, dates, oranges, liquor, groundnuts, etc.) are also exchange between relatives, friends and business associates. Married couples are obliged to give red packets filled with money (called Angpow in Malaysian Hokkien or Hong bao in Mandarin) to children of relatives or friends.       The New Year celebrations traditionally extend to 15 days, where the 15th day is the Chap Goh Meh festival. The most important festival during the 15 days of the new year, for the Hokkiens in Malaysia and Singapore, is the Festival of the Jade Emperor, celebrated on the 9th day of the new year. What Malaysians and Singaporeans normally do:

Before Chinese New Year	Clean the house - spring cleaning. Prepare Chinese New Year Cakes, cookies or biscuits (e.g. kueh kapit or love letters, kueh bulu, kueh bunga, Nian Gao, etc) Shop for new clothes, curtains, Chinese New Year decoration, food, new year gifts, etc.... Stock up food for the long holidays. Balik Kampong or go back to their family home or hometown. The family reunion dinner is held on Chinese New Year Eve. Its usually at home or at a restaurant. Visit the temple to offer prayers.   Travel tips Search for best hotel rates from multiple website for free before booking!
Chinese New Year	Dress up, family gather to pay respect and good wishes Visit the temple to offer prayers Visit relatives and Chinese friends, with mandarin oranges to offer new year wishes. Have open houses, invite friends and relatives usually to eat New Year cookies and celebrate the new year. Eating and feasting on cakes and other New Year dishes While adults give out ang pow (red packets), children receive them. Go for holidays, see a show, dinning or shopping New year is also a time where many gambles - usually a friendly game of cards among friends and relatives!
Beliefs	Cleaning the house - A traditional belief of sweeping out the ill fortune of the old year. Sweeping out is not recommended on New Year's Day for fear of sweeping away the good fortune that the new year brings. Debts - Settling or paying off old debts and collect what is owed to you before the new year, so your fortunes are not lost and you will prosper.

Other Chinese Festivals

Chap Goh Meh (in the Hokkien dialect) is the last day of the Chinese Spring festival or New Year celebrations or 15th day of the Chinese lunar calendar. Chinese normally celebrate by having a grand dinner and Buddhists and Taoist Chinese mark the day with offerings and prayers. In the old, single girls will throw tangerines into the sea  - a belief that that will bring them a good spouse......

Festival of the Heavenly God or Jade Emperor (9th day of the Chinese lunar calendar)     This festival starts on the early morning of the 9th day of the Chinese lunar calendar (after midnight of the 8th day). It is the most important spring festival for the Hokkiens (mainly descendents from Fujian province, China), a celebration which is celebrated widely by the Buddhist and Taoists Chinese in Malaysia. The celebration marks the birthday of the Jade Emperor or Guardian or Heavenly God, who lives in the centre of the universe.

Festival of the Nine Emperor Gods (according to lunar calendar - Sept/Oct)    This festival falls on the ninth day of the ninth moon in the Chinese lunar calendar.  The Nine Emperor Gods are spiritual mediums believed to dwell in the stars in heaven. On the eve of the ninth moon, temples of the Deities hold a ceremony to welcome the gods.  The rituals during the festival acts as a channel between celestial beings and humans for the salvation and protection of mankind. The Gods are believed to travel through the waterways so processions are held from temples to the seashore or river.  The celebration lasts for 9 days. Many devotees throng to the temples to offer prayers and follow a vegetarian diet during this period. On the 9^th day ends usually with a fire-walking ritual. In Penang temples are crowded and streets are lined with stalls selling praying items of vegetarian food. 

Dragon Boat Festival / Chang Festival   (according to lunar calendar - June/July)    This festival marks the death of a Chinese poet and scholar Qu Yuan who drowned in 296 BC in Hunan province in China . When people heard of his disappearance, they scoured the river in boats to rescue him, beating their drums to scare off the fishes from nibbling at his body. Unable to find his body, they made glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them into the river in the hope that the fishes would eat these dumplings instead of his remains. This day falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. To commemorate the occasion, boats were decorated with dragon heads on their bows. The tradition of making dumplings (called 'chang')is celebrated by the Chinese community in Malaysia with the offering of the dumplings to the gods. The festival is celebrated in Penang annually with an international dragon boat competition which is immensely popular and attracts participants from all over the world.

Cheng Beng (April)     This event falls on the third month of the lunar calendar and usually coincides with April. It is the Chinese equivalent of All Souls’ Day. During this month, the Chinese will visit the cemeteries to clean the ancestral graves and make offerings to the spirits of their departed loved ones.

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