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Why the upside-down blessing during Chinese New Year?
One tradition for Chinese New Year is to post Chūn lián (antithetical couplets) on the door. Chūn lián are festive words written on red paper. One of the most frequently used words is Fú (福), which means blessing.
However, if you recognize Chinese characters, you'd be surprised to find that Chinese people turn the word ‘blessing' upside-down when they post the Chūn lián on their doors. The reason is that the Chinese word for ‘arrive' has the same pronunciation as the word ‘upside-down.' So, by turning the blessing the other way makes it read ‘blessing arrives.'
The legend behind this story is as follows: in the 14th century, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, used the word Fú as a secret signal for executions. His wife, the Empress Ma, was concerned that this might turn into a killing spree.
In order to prevent this, Empress Ma thought of an idea. She gave a secret order to all the families in the city that, by sunrise of the next day, every family needed to post the character Fú on their doors. Every family obeyed the order.
However, there was one illiterate family, whose owner had pasted the Fú upside down. The next day, Emperor Zhu saw that all the families had his secret signal but one family got the character wrong. He was furious and ordered that family's execution immediately.
A turn of good fortune
Empress Ma found out about this. She was very clever, and said to the emperor: “That family knew you would come today. They pasted the word upside down, so that it now reads: ‘blessing arrives'. Isn't this what your presence means to them?”
Upon hearing this, the Emperor released the family out of surprise. From that point on, people started to place the Fú upside-down. Since then, it has become a Chinese New Year tradition.
Why the fireworks during Chinese New Year?
Have you ever wondered why Chinese people love fireworks so much? Aside from the fact that the Chinese invented gunpowder and are now the largest manufacturers, many Chinese just love setting off these fireworks for all occasions, especially to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
Of course, there is a story behind it this too, and it goes like this. A long time ago, Nián (from the word Guò Nián, or ‘to pass the year') was a monster living in a mountain. This monster only came down from the mountain to the villages at the end of every year, to hunt for livestock and people for food. For years, people ran away to avoid disaster.
One year, Nián came down to the village as usual. However, he immediately ran away when he noticed a big piece of red cloth outside one house. On the other side of the village, Nián ran away when he encountered a bright fire that made loud noises from burning wood.
People realized that Nián was afraid of the color red, bright light, and sound. To prevent the monster from coming to the village again, people started setting off fireworks on this day. For generations, Chinese families have set off fireworks. Today, Chinese cities often stage grand fireworks shows for locals.
No wonder Guo Nian (the pass of Nian) means ‘to celebrate the New Year.'
Why the fish during Chinese New Year?
One dish that's always on the celebration dinner table during Chinese New Year is fish. Why do people eat fish especially on this day?
The Chinese word for ‘fish' has the same pronunciation as the word ‘extra' in Chinese. There is a Chinese idiom (Nián Nián yŏu yú) that means we can have a few extra things every year. This is a blessing; when translated to the dinner table, it means that we can have a bit more fish each year.
Educational Videos
Our short videos with activities are a great way to introduce the Chinese New Year and its traditions to your students while enhancing your teaching strategies.Printables
Quizzes
Test your students' knowledge about the Chinese New Year with these quizzes during Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month.Lesson Plans
Choose from our Lesson Plans to teach students about the Chinese New Year. Includes lessons on making paper, different forms of Chinese music, and Chinese money.Art Activities for Chinese New Year
Incorporate art into your lessons for the Chinese New Year to expand students' knowledge by creating a story cloth to learn about different Chinese cultures and customs.Chinese Music Resources
Increase students' knowledge of and interest in the Chinese New Year by introducing them to Chinese music styles, vocal music and instrumental, as well as Chinese traditions.References
These references for the Chinese New Year will keep your students engaged while learning about the Chinese calendar and information on the Chinese New Year.Chinese New Year Literature Resources
Teach your students about the Chinese and Asian cultures by using our Chinese New Year Literature Resources and enrichment activities.Language Arts Activities for Chinese New Year
Interconnect these Language Arts activities with your lessons on the Chinese New Year to enhance students’ learning. Includes vocabulary and spelling printables as well as a word scramble.Chinese New Year History Resources
Explore our history resources and increase your teaching strategies with reading passages about the history of chopsticks and tea, the art of Feng Shui, and the development of "Chinatowns" in major cities of the United States.Asian-American History Resources
Keep your students engaged with our Asian-American Resources including a slideshow on the Chinese New Year, making musical instruments and paper, and a book about a young Chinese girl's experience in the United States.Chinese New Year Vocab – 63 Must Know Words and Phrases
Your Guide to All the Essential Chinese New Year Vocab
Learning Chinese New Year vocab is a great way to find out more about Chinese New Year traditions and practices. It is also the perfect opportunity to take the vocab you've learned and test it out with Chinese friends, a language partner or in Chinese classes.
If you want to find out more about Chinese New Year apart from just the vocab make sure to have a look at our Complete Guide to Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year Vocab – Events and Dates
Chinese New Year Vocab – Greetings and Blessings
Chinese New Year Vocab – Activities, Objects and Decorations
Chinese New Year Vocab – New Year Food
Chinese New Year Vocab – Chinese Zodiac Animals
Chinese Zodiac – Posters
Chinese New Year Vocab – Quiz
Chinese New Year Vocab – Events and Dates
To start off let's have a look at some of the main events and dates that you should be aware of for Chinese New Year.
You'll notice that there are actually quite a few ways to say New Year, however the main one is 春节chūnjié which literally translates to Spring Festival.
English
Chinese
Pinyin
春节
chūnjié
Lunar New Year
农历新年
nóng lì xīn nián
Chinese New Year’s Eve
除夕
chúxī
New Year’s Day
大年初一
dànián chūyī
Day After New Year’s
初二
chūèr
元宵节/正月十五
yuán xiāo jié/zhēngyuèshíwǔ
First month of the lunar year
正月
zhēng yuè
Twelfth month of the lunar year
腊月
làyuè
春运
chūnyùn
Reunion dinner
团圆饭
tuányuán fàn
春节晚会
chūnjié wǎnhuì
庙会
miàohuì
New Years dinner
年夜饭
nián yè fàn
Celebrate the New Year
过年
guònián
New Year’s visit
拜年
bàinián
If you're in Beijing for Chinese New Year, have a look at our list of top things to do below.
Chinese New Year Vocab – Greetings and Blessings
Let's have a look at some of the most common ways.
Happy Holidays – 过年好 guònián hǎo!
As we saw in the last section of Chinese New Year vocab, 过年 guònián means to celebrate the New Year so you simply add 好 hǎo afterwards to wish someone happy holidays.
Happy Spring Festival – 春节快乐 chūnjié kuàilè
Happy New Year – 新年快乐 xīn nián kuài lè
Another standard New Year greeting, however this one can also be used to wish someone a Happy New Year for the Gregorian calendar on 1st January.
Wishing (You) Good Fortune – 恭喜发财 gōngxǐfācái
This is one of the most popular New Year greetings you'll hear in China, 恭喜 gōngxǐ are good wishes, or congratulations and 发财 fācái means to become rich of gather wealth.
Children will often follow up 恭喜发财 gōngxǐfācái with the phrase 红包拿来 hóngbāo ná lái which means “may I have my red envelope please?”. This is normally how children will greet their aunties and uncles during New Year visits.
May all your wishes come true – 祝你心想事成 zhù nǐ xīnxiǎng-shìchéng
Another appropriate time to wish someone this could also be on their birthday for example.
May you have abundance year after year – 年年有余 niánniányǒuyú
Wishing (You) Good Health – 敬祝身体健康 jìng zhù shēntǐ jiànkāng
Good Luck in the Year of the Ox – 牛年大吉 niú nián dàjí
For other years, you can simply replace 牛 niú with the Chinese zodiac animal for that year.
Everlasting peace year after year – 岁岁平安 suìsuì-píng'ān
Lastly we have the simple blessing to wish someone peace 平安 píng'ān year after year.
It's important to remember that 岁岁 suìsuì only refers to year after year in this idiom and can't be used on it's own to mean yearly.
Chinese New Year Vocab – Activities, Objects and Decorations
Along with important dates and New Year greetings there are of course lots of other activities and objects that are a vital part of Chinese New Year.
But are you as familiar with some of the other Chinese New Year activities and objects?
English
Chinese
Pinyin
红包
hóngbāo
Money given to children
as a Lunar New Year gift
压岁钱
yāsuìqián
Gifts
礼物
lǐwù
Fireworks
烟花
yānhuā
Firecrackers
鞭炮
biānpào
Set off firecrackers
放鞭炮
fàng biānpào
Lantern
灯笼
dēnglóng
Comedic skits
小品
xiǎopǐn
Cross-talk
相声
xiàngsheng
Acrobatics
杂技
zájì
Lion dance
舞狮
wǔshī
Dragon dance
舞龙
wǔ lóng
Zodiac
生肖
shēngxiào
Staying up until midnight/through the night
守夜
shǒuyè
They traditionally decorate doorways to bring luck and festivity during the Lunar New Year.
Here are some of the most common decorations you'll see:
Chinese New Year Vocab – New Year Food
Anyone who is familiar with Chinese culture will know how important food is, with particular dishes being eaten for their symbolic meaning.
Dumplings – 饺子 jiǎozi
Dumplings or more specifically 饺子 jiǎozi are a classic lucky New Year food that are traditionally eaten on Chinese New Year's Eve (除夕 chúxī).
Jiaozi can be made to look like Chinese gold and silver ingots that were used as money in ancient times.
According to legend the more dumplings you eat the richer you will become in the New Year.
Glutinous rice dumplings – 汤圆 tāngyuán
Next up we have another kind of dumpling that is popular to eat during Chinese New Year. Unlike jiaozi, it is the name of these dumplings that make them lucky, rather than their shape.
The 圆 yuán in their name is associated with reunion (团圆 tuányuán) and family togethreness.
Fish – 鱼 yú
We already mentioned earlier that fish in Chinese is seen as an auspicious food because it is a homonym for 余 yú meaning surplus.
This makes a fish dish an essential part of any Chinese New Year meal. Having fish every year symbolises the New Year blessing 年年有余 niánniányǒuyú
鱼总是晚餐必不可少的，因为鱼象征着年年有余。Yú zǒng shì wǎncān bì bùkě shǎo de, yīnwèi yú xiàngzhēngzhe nián nián yǒuyú.
How the fish is served varies depending on where in China you are, some areas traditionally serve a whole fish where as in some cities such as Shanghai, it is traditional to have Shanghai smoked fish 上海熏鱼 shànghǎi xūn yú.
Spring rolls – 春卷 chūnjuǎn
Although now eaten and enjoyed all year round, spring rolls were actually originally eaten during Spring Festival, which is actually where they got their name from.
These are a lucky food to eat during the Lunar New Year because they symbolise wealth as their appearance look similar to gold bars.
The lucky saying 黄金万两 is associated with eating them which means “a ton of gold”.
New Year cake – 年糕 niángāo
New Year cake is a glutinous rice cake that is normally eaten as part of the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner.
This dish is considered auspicious because the name is a homonym for 年高 “higher year”.
Thus it is eaten to signify higher success in the coming year.
Longevity noodles – 长寿面 chángshòu miàn
Longevity noodles are commonly eaten either during Chinese New Year or on a person's birthday. Originally they are made from one long, unbroken noodle strand and the longer the noodle the bigger the wish for long life. Nowadays they are normally a mixture of very long noodles, rather than just being one single strand.
Fruit – 水果 shuǐguǒ
The main ones are tangerines 桔子 júzi, oranges 橙子 chéngzi and pomelo 柚子 yòuzi
This is again because of the sound or the look of the characters, 桔 jú contains the Chinese character for luck (吉 jí) and 橙 chéng sounds the same as 成 meaning success.
The 柚 yòu in pomelo sounds both like 有 yǒu (to have), and 又 yòu (again) so the more you eat the more wealth you will have.
Chinese New Year Vocab – Chinese Zodiac Animals
English
Chinese
Pinyin
shǔ
Ox
niú
Tiger
Rabbit
Dragon
lóng
Snake
shé
Horse
Sheep
yáng
Monkey
hóu
Rooster
gǒu
zhū
The Chinese Zodiac begins with the Year of the Rat and then you can follow the order clockwise from the graphic below.
Chinese Zodiac Posters
…
Chinese New Year Vocab – Quiz
Put your Chinese New Year vocab to the test with our quick quiz!
First Name
What is lantern?
What is Spring Festival (Chinese New Year)?
What is fireworks?
What is 春节晚会 chūnjié wǎnhuì?
What is 鞭炮 biānpào?
What is New Year's dinner?
What is 红包 hóngbāo?
What is 生肖 shēngxiào?
What is Lantern Festival?
What are Spring Festival couplets?
What are temple fairs?
What is 除夕chúxī?
What is 礼物 lǐwù?
What is 春运 chūnyùn?
What is reunion dinner?
4 out of 3Time is Up!
Chinese New Year Vocab – FAQs
How do you say Chinese New Year in Chinese?Chinese New Year in Chinese is 春节 chūnjié which literally means Spring Festival.
How do you say Happy New Year in Chinese?Happy New Year in Chinese is 春节快乐 chūnjié kuàilè which literally means Happy Spring Festival.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 2022?The Chinese zodiac animal for 2022 is the Ox.
What day is Chinese New Year 2021?Chinese New Year 2021 is the 12th February.
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Written by
Katie was fascinated by Chinese culture from a young age which led her to study Chinese and History at university. She now works as a Student Advisor for LTL in Beijing.
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