Thursday, December 22, 2011

Decorations

7:27 AM
By Steve Chung


Find out how the Chinese people decorate their homes and streets with specially crafted Chinese New Year decorations.

The Chinese New Year is a very special day in the lunar calendar of this ancient civilization. One can see Chinese families beautifying their homes with many different Chinese New Year decorations prepared especially for the occasion. From the insides of people's homes to the city streets China is glittering in color throughout this season.

Few of the New Year decorations seen are pretty flowers to platters of food and some other variety of decorations that arereserved for the festival. There are specific decorative items that have become signs to mark this time of the year. The collection of decorating items is wide and colorful.

Natural blossoms are a very important part of the Chinese New Year decorations. Moreover, as a matter of fact, their love for the nature is pretty evident. At this time of the year, local households are decorated with different flowers and plants that represent growth and prosperity for the coming year.

For decorating purposes, the most commonly used plants and flowers are the plum blossoms at such times. This is because, they just start to blossom during this season and they are arranged beautifully together with bamboo and pine springs. This represents a special intimacy between families and friends around this time.

Reliability and perseverance are amongst the symbolic virtues the plum blossoms are supposed to represent. The bamboo represents compatibility due to its flexible nature and the evergreen pine is the classic symbol of longevity. Other commonly used flowers include the azalea, narcissus, water lily and the peony.

Fruits too have a role in New Year decoration and are usually found in Chinese households during the season. Oranges and tangerines are taken to be most popular and are often given by friends who come over for a visit. Tangerines symbolize maintenance of a long relationship and happiness.

The best thing of the Chinese New Year is probably the candy tray. At least adolescents would agree to it. Especially designed trays are brought and cadies are placed on them during this time. This sweet treat is also known as the tray of togetherness and it is piled with various delicious candies.

This candy tray also has another ritual following it up where an adult takes a candy and replaces it by keeping a red envelope in the tray that consists of some kind of good luck icon for the residentsoffering it. Generally the candy tray consists of candied melon of different variety like lychee nut, peanuts, coconut, and cumquat etc. all of which have special meanings.

Most of the New Year decorations are centered around the particular animal symbol of the year. This has been a Chinese tradition for centuries now and still goes on even now.




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