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How to say “I wish you have a happy Lunar Chinese New Year, and may all your hopes be fulfilled ” in Chinese: 祝你农历中国新年快乐，万事如意。Zhu4 ni3 nong2 li4 zhong1 guo2 xin1 nian2 kuai4 le4, wan4 shi4 ru2 yi4. Zhu4 (祝 verb, to wish) ni3 (你 pronoun, you) nong2 li4 (农历 noun, the lunar calendar, the traditional Chinese calendar) zhong1 guo2 (中国 proper noun, China, Chinese) xin1 nian2 (新年 xin means new, an adjective; nian means year, a noun; xin nian means new year) kuai4 le4 (快乐 adjective, happy) , wan4 (万 number, ten thousand, innumerable) shi4 (事 noun, things) ru2 (如 verb, obey or go along with) yi4 (意 noun, wish, thought, thinking).

First I would like to wish you a prosperous Dragon Year and a smooth and happy year of Chinese learning. There are some useful information you might want to know about Chinese New Year －－ Spring Festival 春节 （ chun1 jie2).

1. The Spring festival
Spring Festival 春节 （ chun1 jie2) is the most important traditional and social festival in Chinese spoken world. Its significance is like Christmas Day to Christian world.

Spring Festival, according to historic documents, derives from heavenly deities and ancestor worships in the 商 Shang dynasty (1600 BC – 1046 BC). In 1912, China started using the Western calendar and joined the Western world in celebrating January 1 as New Year’s Day. However, all Chinese world, continues to celebrate the traditional Chinese New Year.

Before Spring Festival, every Chinese household started thoroughly cleaning their house with the hope to get rid of bad things and preventing diseases. On the day of December thirtieth, their pasting door-god (门神， men2 shen2） paintings and spring festival couplets (春联 chun1 lian2）， is a way to pray for fortune and auspiciousness in the coming New Year.

On the New Year’s Eve -Chu2 xi4 除夕, all families gather and unite to enjoy an once a year gourmet dinner — reunion meal ( 团圆饭 tuan2 yuan2 fan4) . They enjoy the chatting among family members or go out to shoot off firecrackers, play dragon dance and lion dance, and stays up late or all night to guard the year （守岁 shou3 sui4, guard the year）. When morning comes, folks go out to visit friends and relatives. Grownups usually give 压岁钱 （ya1 sui4 qian2, money given to children as New Year presents; it is also called hong2 bao1 红包， red envelop or red packets). The celebration of the Spring Festival lasts 15 days, from the first day till the 15th day of the first lunar month (the Lantern Festival 元宵节 Yuan2 xiao1 jie2).

2. The Chinese New Year Eve, we call it 除夕 chu2 xi4. There is a story about chu xi.

Long long time ago, somewhere in China, there was a ferocious monster called 夕 Xi4. At the end of the lunar New Year, Xi4 usually came out to attacks people and animals in the villages. At first, people ran away to escape Xi’s attack. Later, people gradually learned that Xi was afraid of color of red and noises. Thus, they came out fantastic ideas to get rid of the monster:

The villagers gathered together to conquer the monster by dressing themselves in red， lighting firecrackers, and beating gongs and drums. Their effort was so successful that Xi got scared tremendously and ran back to the mountain cave. So, since then, year after year they did that to 驱除夕兽 qu1 chu2 xi4 shou4. 驱除 Qu1 cu2 are similar meaning compound word, both characters mean to get rid of; Xi4 means the monster Xi4 and the shou4 means monster. For people usually did these things to chase Xi away on the thirtieth of Lunar December to 驱除夕兽 qu1 cu2 xi4 shou4, hence, that day, lunar December thirtieth was named 除夕 Chu2 Xi4 since then.

Chinese Spring Festival

and song
鄧麗君 恭喜恭喜 (Dec 1968) Congratulations, congratulations (on the coming of New Year)