1、Spring Festival,Customs,Brief introduction,The Chinese zodiac,Outline,Food,1.Spring Festival,The Spring Festival，also called “the Chinese New Year”，has been the most significant and celebrated holiday of the year for the Chinese nationality. According to the traditional custom, the Spring Festival l

2、asts from the 23rd day of 12th lunar month to the 15th day of 1st lunar month, and the climax should be the New Year Eve and the first day of first lunar month.,The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas

3、in the West. New Year is the time of harvest,clean our house,make dumplings,visit our families,dragon dancing,What we usually do in spring festival ?,We give children Lucky Money,set off firecrakers,watch fireworks,lion dancing,The Spring Festival is usually in February. It is on lunar 1st of Januar

4、y. At the Spring Festival, people have lots of food and fruit, and may give children lucky money in red paper. People studying or working in other cities and countries will come back home and have fun with their families and friends. People ,especially children ,will dress up during the Spring Festi

5、val. On New Years Eve, people will have a dinner , watch the Spring Festival program, watch fireworks, set off firecrackers,2.Customs:,Spring Festival, Spring Festival couplets （two successive rhyming lines in poetry）New Year paintings Paper cuttings New Years visit Family reunion dinner gift money

6、/ lucky money （money given to children as a lunar New Year gift）red packets (cash wrapped up in red paper, symbolize fortune and wealth in the coming year.),offer sacrifices to ones ancestors staying-up bid farewell to the old year propose a toast lion dance (The lion is believed to be able to dispe

7、l evil and bring good luck.) dragon dance (to expect good weather and good harvests)traditional opera the temple fair spring cleaning （general house-cleaning）,Spring Festival couplets,Spring Festival couplets,Wish you prosperity!,Everyehing goes well!,lucky money,money given to children as a lunar N

8、ew Year gift,New Year paintings,During the Spring Festival , it is traditional to decorate the homes with new year paintings. The mostpopular paintings are Door Gods pasted on the front door to keep ghosts and monsters away.,Paper cuttings,Paper cuttings,reunion dinner of the New year eve,Family reu

9、nion dinner,People attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve. At that time, all family members eat dinner together. The meal is more luxurious than usual.,3.Food,Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively ji, yu and doufu, m

10、ean auspiciousness, abundance and richness.,1) Fish: homophone for surpluses,2) pudding niangao means higher and higher, one year after another.,3) dumplings People have dumplings to express wishes for getting more money in the new year. Bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new.,4) Rice d

11、umplingspeoples yearning for family reunion,Unlike the Western zodiac, its based on a 12-year cycle according to the lunar calendar. Each year is represented by a different animal. These animal signs in order are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog, and boar .

12、Many legends explain how the Chinese zodiac came about.,4.The Chinese Zodiac,Happy New Year,The Chinese zodiac paper-cut,rat,ox,tiger,rabbit,dragon,snake,The Chinese Zodiac,cock,horse,sheep,monkey,dog,boar,This year is the yearofrabbit Next year is the year of dragon,2012,Spring Festival,When?,Delicious food,Visit friends and families,Dress up,Watching the Spring Festival program,Have fun with,Red packet,spring cleaning,Spring Festival couplets,New Year paintings,Paper cuttings,Spring Festival,on the first day of the lunar year,last