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| How Do the Chinese Celebrate the Festival The main traditional celebrations of the festival include eating reunion dinner with family, giving red envelopes, firecrackers, new clothes, and decorations. More modern celebrations include watching the CCTV Gala, instant message greetings, and cyber money gifts. It's a Festival for Family – Chinese get together and enjoy family time. Wherever they are, people come home to celebrate the festival with their families. The New Year's Eve dinner is called "reunion dinner", and is believed to be the most important meal of the year. Big families of several generations sit around round tables and enjoy the food and time together.  "The way that we fold those dumplings signifies good wealth. It's in a shape of old Chinese gold money, so essentially, if you fold it the right way, you give people good wealth," Pang says of his Steamed Wontons in Chili Broth. |   Chinese New Year is all about family time, and the whole process is pretty much non-stop eating. It’s a really good time to get everyone together and have a big family gathering. Usually what happens is there’s lots of eating and then in between eating, we talk about food,” chef Jeremy Pang of London’s School of Wok laughs. |
    | The fifteenth day of the new year is celebrated as the Lantern Festival (otherwise known as Chap Goh Mei) Rice dumplings tangyuan a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup, are eaten this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. This day is celebrated as the Lantern Festival, and families walk the street carrying lighted lanterns. In China, Malaysia and Singapore, this day is celebrated by individuals seeking for a romantic partner, akin to Valentine's Day Normally, single women would write their contact number on mandarin oranges and throw it in a river or a lake while single men would collect them and eat the oranges. The taste is an indication of their possible love: sweet represents a good fate while sour represents a bad fate. This day often marks the end of the Chinese New Year festivities. The lantern festival is held each year around the country. Lanterns of various shapes and sizes are hung in the streets, attracting countless visitors. Children will hold self-made or bought lanterns to stroll with on the streets, extremely excited. In the daytime of the Festival, performances such as a dragon lantern dance, a lion dance, a land boat dance, a yangge dance, walking on stilts and beating drums while dancing will be staged. On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene. . Some local governments will even organize a fireworks party. On the night when the first full moon enters the New Year, people become really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky. See some famous "Dogs" below. |
