The Spring Festival
Everyone,young and old,rich and poor,looks forward to celebrating the noisiest,most joyous and longest festival of the year.Chinese New Year is not celebrated at a hotel or supper club with revelers donning silly paper hats,drinking liquor and champagne,eating sumptuously,blowing whistles,twirling noisy rattles and throwing confetti while singing "Auld Lang syne" and dancing until the wee hours of the morning.In China,New Year's Day is a solemn occasion.Every family performs religious rites at the family altar.This is the time for a family reunion.All family quarrels have been amiably settled and forgotten.
Before the eve of the New Year,everyone tries to come back home from every corner of the country to join the entire family,just like Americans' practice for Christmas,to greet the New Year.A New Year big dinner is served.After the meal,the table is cleared,dishes washed and put away.Then it is time to undertake final preparations to meet the New Year.