Home Cooked Deliciousness
Tradition dictates that the eve of the Spring Festival is the most important dinner of the whole year, when all family members are supposed to gather and enjoy a reunion dinner. Many Chinese people enjoy the long and elaborate process of preparing the dinner together, using it as a way to draw family members closer together.
Restaurant Convenience
Despite this, many families will now hold their reunion dinners in restaurants. For them, it is a matter of convenience. Why go through all the effort and fuss when a single phone call can get you a table at a restaurant? They believe that the aim of the reunion dinner is for everyone to get together and be happy, and not have to expend so much effort cooking and washing the dishes. In addition, many Chinese restaurants these days offer special Spring Festival menus.
Old Traditions Bring Most Cheer
Decorating the house with scrolls of Spring Festival couplets to welcome the New Year is an old custom which adds a warm and harmonious atmosphere to the celebration. People who follow the traditional ways of spending the Spring Festival will have begun to clean and decorate their houses a week before the festival. On the eve of the festival, most people call their relatives and friends to send them New Year’s greetings as early as possible. With the sound of firecrackers outside and warm voices inside, this tradition lends a festive touch to the day.
New Customs More Appealing to Internet Generation
However, these days, a new way of sending New Year greetings has become more and more popular. Instead of calling up their friends and relatives, many log online to micro-blogs or WeChat, a mobile phone text and voice messaging service, to send their greetings. Some use video chat to wish their friends ‘Happy New Year’ in a video.
Watching the Spring Festival Gala Together Is a Must
Since 1983, China Central Television has screened its annual Spring Festival Gala on the eve of the celebration. For many families, watching the program together has become a family tradition and custom. People watch the program while preparing dumplings and chatting with each other. Although the Spring Festival Gala tends to have a similar program every year, people who appreciate the value of tradition still watch it faithfully. For some, it’s not so much the program that is the attraction, but the warm memories of childhood and family love that it brings back.
New Ways to Enjoy the Spring Festival Gala
Although many people still watch the program, there is now a new way of enjoying it: logging online and sharing one’s comments and opinions on this year’s program with other netizens. In fact, some of the commentary of the Spring Festival Gala is so humorous and interesting that they become trending topics for days. This new way of enjoying the program also brings a happy atmosphere to the Spring Festival.

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