79. The Spring Festival

The Spring Festival Far and away the most important holiday in China is the Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year. To the Chinese people it is as important as Christmas to people in the West. 中国最盛大的节日无疑就是春节，也就是中国年。春节对中国人来说就像圣诞节对西方人一样重要。 The dates for this annual celebration are determined by the lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, so the timing of the holiday varies from late January to early February. To the ordinary Chinese, the festival actually begins on the eve of the lunar New Year’s Day and ends on the fifth day of the first month of the lunar calendar. But the 15th of the first month, which normally is called the Lantern Festival, means the official end of the Spring Festival in many parts of the country. 这个年度盛典（春节）的日期是由中国农历而不是公历决定的，因此春节可能是1月底或2月初。对于普通中国人来说，春节真正开始于除夕而于正月十五结束。正月十五，也叫元宵节，在那一天我国大部分地区正式结束春节。 “Guo Nian,” which means “passing the year,” is the common term among the Chinese people for celebrating the Spring Festival. It actually means greeting the new year. On New Year’s Eve, all the members of families come together to feast. The tradition is to have different main courses every day from the 1st day of the New Year to the 15th day of the New Year, from Jiao Zi (dumplings), noodles, spring rolls, sticky rice cakes, and Tang Yuan (stuffed rice balls), which lead to a lot of advertisements about fitness right after the Chinese New Year holiday. “过年”，又叫“过年关”，是中国人庆贺春节时互相道贺的语言，意味着真正迎接新年。在除夕夜，家里所有人聚在一起吃大餐。传统就是，从大年初一直到正月十五，每天都有不同的主菜：饺子、面条、春卷、年糕以及汤圆等等, 这导致节后就会出现很多减肥广告。