Chinese New Year Celebration is the most important celebrationof the year. Chinese people may celebrate theChinese New Year in slightly different ways but their wishes arealmost the same; they want their family members and friends to behealthy and lucky during next year。

　　春節(jié)慶祝活動是一年中最重要的慶祝活動。中國人慶祝春節(jié)的方式可能略微不同，但其愿望幾乎是相同的，他們希望其家人和朋友來年健康和幸運。

　　Chinese New Year Celebration usuallylasts for 15 days. Celebratory activities include ChineseNew Feast, firecrackers, giving lucky money to children, the NewYear bell ringing and Chinese New Year Greetings. Most of Chinesepeople will stop the celebrating in their home on the 7th day ofNew Year because the national holiday usually ends around that day,however celebrations in public areas can last until the 15th day ofNew Year。

　　春節(jié)慶祝活動通常持續(xù)15天。慶祝活動包括春節(jié)的年夜飯，放鞭炮，給兒童壓歲錢，春節(jié)鐘聲和春節(jié)問候。大多數中國人將在春節(jié)的第7天停止慶祝活動，因為全國性節(jié)假通常在這一天結束，但在公共場所的慶祝活動可能最終持續(xù)到正月十五。

　　House Cleaning

　　房屋打掃

　　To clean houses on the New Year Eve isa very old custom dating back to thousands of years ago. The dustis traditionally associated with “old” so cleaning their houses andsweeping the dust mean to bid farewell to the“old” and usher in the “new”. Days before the New Year, Chinesefamilies clean their houses, sweeping the floor, washing dailythings, cleaning the spider webs and dredging the ditches. People do allthese things happily in the hope of a good coming year。

　　春節(jié)打掃房屋這個非常古老的習俗甚至可以追溯到幾千年前。灰塵在傳統(tǒng)上與“舊”聯(lián)系在一起，所以打掃房屋和掃除灰塵意味著辭“舊”迎“新”。春節(jié)的前幾天，中國的各家各戶都打掃房屋，掃地，清洗日用品，清除蛛網和疏浚溝渠。人們興高采烈做所有這些事情，希望來年好運。

　　House decoration

　　房屋裝飾

　　One of the house decorations is to postcouplets on doors. On the Spring Festival couplets, good wishes are

　　expressed. New Year couplets are usually posted inpairs as even numbers are associated with good luck andauspiciousness in Chinese culture。

　　房屋裝飾之一就是在門上貼對聯(lián)。在春聯(lián)上，抒發(fā)良好的祝愿。春聯(lián)通常是成對張貼，因為雙數在中國文化中是好運氣和吉祥的象征。

　　People in north China are used toposting paper-cut on their windows. When sticking the window

　　decoration paper-cuts, people paste on the door largered Chinese character “fu”A red "fu"means good luck and fortune, so itis customary to post "fu"on doors or walls on auspicious

　　occasions such as wedding, festivals。

　　在中國北方，人們習慣于在窗戶上貼剪紙。人們既在窗戶上貼剪紙，又在大門上貼上大大的紅色漢字“福”字，一個紅色“福”字意味著好運和財富，因此習慣上在婚禮，節(jié)日之類的吉祥場合中，人們都會在門或墻上貼“福”字。

　　Waiting for the First Bell Ringing ofChinese New Year

　　等待春節(jié)的第一聲鐘鳴

　　The first bell ringing is the symbol of ChineseNew Year. Chinese people like to go to a large squares where thereare huge bells are set up on New Year’s Eve. As the New Yearapproaches they count down and celebrate

　　together. The people believe that the ringing of huge bell candrive all the bad luck away and bring the fortune to them.In recent years, some people have begun going to mountain templesto wait for the first ringing. Hanshan Temple in Suzhou, is veryfamous temple for its first ringing of the bell to herald ChineseNew Year. Many foreigners now go to Hanshan Temple to celebrateChinese New Year。

　　第一次鐘聲是春節(jié)的象征。中國人喜歡到一個大廣場，那里有為除夕設置的大鐘。隨著春節(jié)的臨近，他們開始倒計數并一起慶祝。人們相信了大鐘的撞響可以驅除霉運，帶來好運。近年來，有些人開始去山上寺廟等待第一次鐘聲。蘇州的寒山寺就非常著名，它的鐘聲宣布春節(jié)的到來。現(xiàn)在有許多外國人也去寒山寺慶祝春節(jié)。

　Staying up late ("Shousui")

　　熬夜(“守歲”)

　　Shousui means to stay up late or allnight on New Year's Eve. After the great dinner, families sittogether and chat happily to wait for the New Year’s arrival。

　　守歲意味著除夕夜不睡覺。年夜飯后，家人聚坐一起，愉快聊天，等待春節(jié)的到來。

New Year Feast

　　年夜飯

　　Spring Festival is a time for familyreunion. The New Year's Feast is "a must" banquet with allthe family members getting together. The food eaten on the New YearEve banquet varies according to regions. In south China, It is

　　customary to eat "niangao" (New Year cake made of

　　glutinous rice flour) because as a homophone, niangaomeans "higher and higher every year". In the north, a traditional

　　dish for the feast is "Jiaozi" or dumplings shaped like a crescentmoon。

　　春節(jié)是與家人團聚的時間。年夜飯是所有家庭成員聚在一起“必須”的宴會。除夕宴會上吃的食物根據不同的地區(qū)各不相同。在中國南方，習慣吃“年糕”(糯米粉制成的新年糕點)，因為作為一個同音字，年糕意味著“步步高升”。在北方，年夜飯的傳統(tǒng)飯是“餃子”或像月牙兒形的湯圓。

　Setting Firecrackers

　　燃放鞭炮

　　Lighting Firecrackers used to be oneof the most important customs in the Spring Festival celebration.However, concerning the danger and the negative noisesthat lighting firecrackers may bring, the government has bannedthis practice in many major cities. But people in small towns and

　　rural areasstill hold to this traditional celebration. Right as the clockstrikes 12 o'clock midnight of New Year's Eve, cities and towns arelit up with the glitter from fireworks, and the sound can be

　　deafening. Families stay up for this joyful moment andkids with firecrackers in one hand and a lighter in anothercheerfully light their happiness in this especial occasion, eventhough they plug their ears。

　　放鞭炮曾是春節(jié)慶祝活動中最重要的習俗之一。然而，擔心燃放鞭炮可能會帶來危險和煩人的噪音，政府已在許多大城市下令禁止燃放鞭炮。但在小城鎮(zhèn)和農村地區(qū)的人們仍然堅持這種傳統(tǒng)的慶祝活動。除夕夜一旦時鐘撞響午夜12點鐘，城市和鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)都被煙花的閃閃光芒映亮，鞭炮聲震耳欲聾。一家人熬夜就為這個歡樂的時刻，孩子們一手拿鞭炮，一手拿火機興高采烈地點放著他們在這個特殊節(jié)日的快樂，盡管他們嚇得捂著耳朵。

　　New Year Greetings(Bai Nian)

　　春節(jié)的問候(拜年)

　　On the first day of the New Year orshortly thereafter, everybody wears new clothes and greetsrelatives and friends with bows and Gongxi (congratulations)，wishing each other good luck, happiness during the new year. InChinese villages, some villagers may have hundreds of relatives sothey have to spend more than two weeks visiting theirrelatives。

　　在春節(jié)第一天或此后不久，大家都穿著新衣服，帶著弓向親戚和朋友打招呼并恭喜(祝賀)，彼此祝愿在新的一年里好運，幸福。在中國農村，有些村民可能有數以百計的親戚，所以他們不得不拿出兩個多星期來走親訪友。

　　On the first day of the new year, it’s

　　customary for the younger generations to visit theelders, wishing them healthy and longevity。

　　春節(jié)第一天，按習慣，小一輩人要拜見老一輩，祝愿他們健康長壽。

　　Because visiting relatives and friendstakes a lot of time, now, some busy people will send New Year cardsto express their good wishes rather than pay a visitpersonally。

　　因為探親訪友花費大量時間，所以，現(xiàn)在有些忙碌的人就送春節(jié)賀卡來表達他們的良好祝愿，而不是親自去拜訪。

　Lucky Money

　　壓歲錢

　　It is the money given to kids fromtheir parents and grandparents as New Year gift. The money isbelieved to bring good luck, ward off monsters; hence the name "luckymoney". Parents and grandparents first put money in small,especially-made red envelopes and give the red envelopes to theirkids after the New Year's Feast or when they come to visit them onthe New Year. They choose to put the money in red envelopes becauseChinese people think red is a lucky color. They want to give theirchildren both lucky money and lucky color。

　　這是孩子們的父母和祖父母給他們作為春節(jié)禮物的錢。壓歲錢據說能帶來好運，能驅魔；因此，就有了“壓歲錢”的稱呼。父母和祖父母先把錢放入特制的小紅包里，年夜飯后或當孩子們來拜年時，將紅包發(fā)給他們。他們之所以要把錢放到紅包里，是因為中國人認為紅色是個幸運色。他們想給自己孩子既有壓歲錢還有幸運色。