February 7th brings back the Year of the Horse, reputedly one of the better periods in the 12-year cycle of Chinese lunar years. The horse long has been one of China's favorite animals, especially in the north. In Mongolia and Manchuria, the horse not only meant wealth but was associated with survival. Some of the finest Chinese paintings are of horses. There is a God of Horses with his birthday on the 23rd day of the 6th moon. One of the 14 classifications of people is based on the horse: long face, big eyes, prominent teeth, a gangling body and loping walk.
In the progression of years, the horse comes after the snake and before the sheep. A longer Chinese calendrical cycle of 60 years combines the twelve animals with the five elements of wood, fire, earth, gold and water. This makes every year in the 60 unique and a delight to the heart of the fortuneteller.
Chinese New Year has not changed so much over the last several hundred years. The customs are the same, even if the manner of carrying them out has been modernized. Many foods now come from the supermarket and the bakery, but the taste is the same. Apartments must have portals. If these are not appropriate for gate guards, the typical New Year's couplets can still be pasted up on either side of the front door. The kitchen god's image is still over the stove, even if the fuel is city gas instead of wood or coal.
Businessmen continue to go through their pre-New Year routine on the 16th day of the 12th moon (January 24, 1978). They don't always close their accounts as they used to. Such matters now tend to proceed by the solar calendar. But they do entertain their employees at dinner (at least if they expect the gods to smile) and maybe offer a toast of thanks for whatever prosperity the past year has brought. The old custom of dismissing an unwanted employee with an offering of rice and red beans has more or less died out. Nowadays, the unsatisfactory worker is likely to get the sack at any time, although the old rule of not breaking another's rice bowl discourages indiscriminate firings by even the most hardhearted businessman.
The New Year season gets to the household level on the 23rd day of the last month of the expiring year. This is the occasion of the farewell party for the kitchen god. Once he was an actual figure, although perhaps made only of papier mache. In these times he may be only a poorly printed piece of paper. But it's the spirit that counts and not the image. It will be better not to offend the kitchen god, who has a big mouth. The trick is to get him drunk before he gets to heaven to report on the family's sins and omissions. Once he is inebriated, his lips can be smeared with sticky sugar. When it comes time for the kitchen god to report, the celestial father won't be able to understand him. Even he could, the kitchen god is too drunk to remember anything.
The Chinese really don't believe this nonsense. It is good fun, though, and so the kitchen god imagery has been preserved. Not so much fun either now or yesterday is the work that must go into assuring that the house is spick and span for the coming of a new time period. The Chinese are clean people. Housewives pride themselves on a spotless house at any time. But New Year's is special. The corners must be dusted and the bedding aired.
Decoration begins on the following day. This is the occasion for pasting up scrolls. The sayings may be trite but they are old, respected and offered hopefully. Not every household has a calligrapher in residence. These worthy gentlemen formerly came around to inscribe their rolls of red paper on the spot with a big, boldly wielded brush. Even now the printed scroll is looked down upon. A calligrapher awaits at the corner or surely not farther than the nearest neighborhood market. His masterpieces may not be the greatest of art but they don't cost much and are better than mechanical reproductions.
No ceremonies take place over the water faucet these days. In bygone times the well had to be sealed and an offering of joss and paper money made to the water spirit. Water was drawn to last for several days and the well closed down for the holiday.
As in the West, New Year's Eve is the big occasion - but that of China is for the family and the children are not barred. There is no going out to night clubs. In Taiwan, the Christmas and New Year's Eve parties - which got started at Shanghai in imitation of the West - have been discouraged. Places of entertainment close at their usual time of midnight. The eve of the coming year is an occasion for all, from 1 to 100, and the fun and games are mixed with some thoughts of those who have gone before. Chinese apartments no longer have ancestral halls; the space is too limited. They do have ancestral shrines and simple rites are held in front of them.
Feasting is the piece de resistance not only of New Year's Eve but of the whole New Year's season. Permissiveness reigns for children as to sweets, sleep and nearly everything else. The foods are old favorites but take on new mystery and dignity with their fancy Chinese names. Eggs are "silver ingots" and vegetables are "Buddha's sceptors." Fish means "plenty," and so there is plenty of fish. In China, no one would ordinarily think of plying the young with drink. But even teenagers may sip a bit of wine on New Year's Eve. When the New Year's Eve meal is over, a new kitchen god is enthroned. He is sober now and might have been shocked by the earlier goings-on.
The Chinese New Year is supposed to arrive at 11 p.m. It's a bit hard to tell time on a basis of the firecracker explosions. The New Year would seem to be on its way around dusk. Then things quiet down as people gather for the evening meal. There are sporadic outbreaks and then a big one at 11. Some modern Chinese, perhaps influenced by the West, prefer midnight and bang away at that hour. This keeps up for an hour or more, until all but the hardiest settle down for a brief winter's nap. Anyone who expects a long sleep will be rudely disillusioned at dawn. The New Year’s dawning is greeted by firecrackers, and this goes on until matches, punk and firecrackers run out. With all the red envelopes that are floating around, and all the little boys who love firecrackers, the shortage and the silence never last for long.
The principal activity of the New Year's season is the making of courtesy calls. This involves family members, friends, superiors and benefactors. Some liberal souls of modern times even visit those who are lower in the pecking order. Gifts are often presented - in the Taiwan of today, these usually take the form of cakes or boxes of fruit. Apples are expensive in tropical Taiwan and these are often given. A box of apples has been known to travel back to the original donor through the hands of several presenters.
Admittedly, there is a tendency for the junior to kowtow (it used to be done literally) to the senior, the younger to the older, the poor to the richer, and so on. This isn't all bad, by any means, but it's a custom that has to be watched, lest it become a form of petty bribery and exaction. In recent years, the various levels of government in the Republic of China have sought to ban gifts and discourage visitation connected with bureaucratic service. The prohibition has sometimes been honored in the breach but the situation is acknowledged to be much improved. Knowing that high authority frowns on bowing and scraping to get ahead, members of the younger generation are asserting their independence of customs which have fallen in to bad usage.
When not abused, visitation is kindly, pleasant and mostly welcome. People who see each other mostly through business or employment are given the opportunity to come together socially. Wives get to know wives and children meet other children. For many people, this may be the only contact of the year with those on whom they call. There is opportunity to express gratitude for favors which cannot be compensated in money. When calculation is taken out of New Year's calls, a lot of kindness remains.
The New Year with its few days off from work is also an occasion to "go home." This is especially true of the residents of Taipei and other big cities, many of whom come from towns, hamlets or even the countryside. Planes, trains and buses are crowded to capacity. Domestic airlines put their tickets for New Year's flights on sale in December. They sold out within a few hours. Tickets for added flights were similarly sold out in January. As many additional flights will be added as the airlines have planes. Train and bus stations become bedlams throughout the holiday period. In the end, everyone seems to get where he wishes to go. Special buses charging a little extra leave Taipei for "down island" from various supposedly secret locations. The authorities do not interfere, and the buses start rolling as soon as they have a full load.
Koreans and Japanese indulge themselves in similar visits home. The Chinese people on the mainland do so as far as the Communists will let them. But travel permission is hard to come by, even for the New Year's holiday. Hongkong residents with homes on the mainland try to cross the border to see loved ones, but this can be a dangerous undertaking. Sometimes they don't get back. Most of the Chinese in Hongkong are refugees from the Communists; they can never be sure that once on the wrong side of the iron curtain, they can get back again. For a time, the Chinese Communists tried to get rid of the Lunar New Year observance. They found that impossible. In some places, rations are liberalized a little, provided goods are available, but there simply is not enough to do this for any sizable fraction of the mainland's more than 800 million people.
In former times, nearly all businesses closed for the holiday. This is no longer possible. Hotels and their restaurants have to remain open. Department stores and supermarkets close for a couple of days, sometimes longer. Some factories shut down for a week, others for only a day or so. The small shop usually calls it quits for five days, although the proprietor may be on hand to receive calls. Many families with mini-stores live on the premises. Bakeries and fruit stands stay open, at least until their stocks are exhausted. The same is true of firecracker stands. Fruit and noisemakers do not nominally run out, but no new baking is done for several days.
Places of entertainment close or stay open in accordance with the number of people required to keep things going. Movie houses don't require a lot of people on duty and are blessed with land-office business. So they keep their doors open from early morning until the midnight closing time. Night clubs and the like customarily take time off. The New Year's celebration centers around the family, and if singles don't have a family, that is likely to be their tough luck. Those who eat at street stalls have a rough time if they don't have a home to visit; few of the small eateries remain open.
A New Year's footnote is added on the 15th day of the first month. This is the occasion of the Lantern Festival. That for this year will center around the figure of the horse. As dusk descends, children will wend their way through the streets carrying lanterns of all shapes and sizes, and not necessarily of horse design. Lantern contests are held. Buddhist temples and department stores have exhibits of prize lanterns. Firecrackers are shot off for the last time in the New Year's season.
The Chinese New Year is a pleasant time that combines elements of the Western Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. Americans who remember the days before the safe and sane Fourth of July movement might add the national day of the United States. Foreigners hearing a Chinese New Year for the first time are likely to think that war has come. It's a difficult holiday for light sleepers and domestic animals. Everybody else has a good time.