Once upon a time, there was a monster named Nian, who lived deep under the sea and came out to harm people every day before the Spring festival. People, along with their livestocks , were injured or killed. In order to conquer this problem, people eventually figured out Nian is extremely fearful of the color red, the sound of a firecracker, and the sparkle. From then on, everyone hung red paper on the front door, set off fireworks into the sky every year. Fortunately, Nian never came again. Nowadays, most Chinese family still inherit these traditions.

During the Spring Festival, every family is busy cleaning their house in the hope of getting rid of defilements and preventing diseases. Also, they need to paste door-god, spring festival couplets,  the reversed Chinese character “福” (means blessing),and hang flags in the hope of praying for auspiciousness in the New Year. On the New Year’s Eve, every family enjoys a grand dinner, shoots off firecrackers, plays dragon dance and lion dance, and stays up late or all night. People usually will pay a New Year call to one another from the first day. The Spring Festival doesn’t have a exact date, for 2016, the Spring festival is on February 8th, and it is not until the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, namely, the Lantern Festival, that the Spring Festival is ended.

Now let’s focus on Northland. Our Chinese international According to Grace Zhang, “I don’t have bunch of plans on this Spring Festival”, she said, “but I am going to have some delicious Chinese food for celebrating the Spring Festival.”

Festivals carry great weight to a culture. Everyone has the obligate to understand their culture in depth.