China News Agency, Beijing, January 21st, title: One World, One Spring Festival
China News Agency reporter Ma Haiyan
The red lanterns are hung high, the wanderers are walking back home, the elderly and children are looking forward to it... The Lunar Year of the Rabbit is coming to us.
"The year of the hundred festivals is the first." For the Chinese, the Chinese New Year not only has the meaning of "renewing the beginning of one yuan and renewing everything", but also the sustenance of "throwing away worries and embracing the New Year".
Children wear costumes for the Year of the Rabbit to welcome the Lunar Year of the Rabbit.
Photo by Xie Chen
Emphasis on family and affection also makes the Spring Festival a password to communicate between China and the world.
From 126 years ago, the "Daily News" in Newfoundland, Canada, recorded the Spring Festival with a little curiosity and rejection of the first batch of Chinese immigrants, to 6 years ago, the Spring Festival officially became an official holiday in Canada; The region held the first Chinese New Year celebration, and the Spring Festival in Chinatown has become a scene in the United States. Behind it is the difficult integration of overseas Chinese and locals for more than a hundred years, and it is also their hard work to establish their influence with their contributions.
The 2023 Canadian Overseas Chinese Spring Festival Gala performed an opening dance full of strong "Chinese style".
Photo by Yu Ruidong
"Where there are Chinese, there is the Spring Festival." The widespread popularity of the Spring Festival around the world is inseparable from the nostalgia for the homeland of more than 60 million overseas Chinese.
In foreign countries, they grafted traditional Chinese food with local specialties, and integrated the celebration of the Spring Festival with local festivals, attracting more and more people living in the country to participate.
Children from Southeast Asian countries dance dragons and lions in the squares. The Spring Festival flower market and folk performances in Chinatown in the United States attract people of all ethnic groups. The French often "organize groups" to eat at local Chinese restaurants during the Spring Festival...
Today, Spring Festival folk activities have entered nearly 200 countries and regions around the world, and about 20 countries have included the Spring Festival as a legal holiday for the whole or some cities in the country.
The Spring Festival has become a worldwide festival, which also embodies the diversity and inclusiveness of human civilization.
The Chinese New Year, marked by posting Spring Festival couplets, hanging red lanterns, ringing bells, lion dances and setting off fireworks, has gradually become "an international celebration".
Tokyo Tower in Japan, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Empire State Building in New York, CN Tower and other multinational landmarks are lit up with "Chinese red" symbolizing festiveness on New Year's Eve; Spring Festival celebrations in Trafalgar Square in London, Chinatown in Canada Various Chinese New Year celebrations, such as the Chinese New Year Parade in New York Chinatown, the Penang Temple Fair in Malaysia, etc., have attracted local people, overseas Chinese and foreign tourists to celebrate the Chinese New Year, which has become a local cultural landscape; this year, China Central Radio and Television The promotional videos of the Spring Festival Gala have also appeared in Sydney World Plaza, Australia, the center of Rome, Italy, mainstream theaters in the United States, and sports events. The new folk custom of "watching the Spring Festival Gala" is spreading from the inside out.
The Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York, USA.
(Data map) Photo by Liao Pan
Over the past few days, Pakistani President Alvi, Philippine President Marcos, United Nations Secretary-General Guterres and other national dignitaries and heads of international organizations have sent Spring Festival blessings in various forms.
The words "Happy Chinese New Year", "Happy Year of the Rabbit" and "Gong Xi Fa Cai" in Chinese appear in the auspicious words of New Year's greetings of politicians, which makes Chinese people feel kind, and it also makes people see everyone's love for "knowing each other is not far or near, and thousands of miles are neighbors". expectations.
As more and more Chinese people go out to the world, and more and more foreigners come to China, the traditional culture behind many details of the Chinese New Year is more deeply understood.
Many foreigners have begun to show great interest in homonyms such as "Nian Nian Yu Yu (fish)", "Luo Sui (Sui)", "Jiaozi (Jiaozi)", "Nian Gao (Nian Nian Gao)" and so on. The God of Wealth, the twelve zodiac signs, etc. form a personal understanding.
Guterres explained the meaning of the Year of the Rabbit in his Chinese New Year speech a few days ago: "The rabbit symbolizes vitality and alertness, which are the qualities that human beings need when facing difficulties and trials." The world has experienced wars, separations, epidemics, and sorrows People who are suffering from these difficulties may understand the true meaning of reunion, peace, health and happiness contained in the Chinese New Year better than ever.
This year, many Chinese people went abroad to celebrate the Spring Festival. While feeling the charm of the "foreign Spring Festival", it also brought long-lost impetus to the recovery of foreign tourism.
There are also many overseas Chinese who return to China to celebrate the New Year, to taste the "taste of mother", to comfort their nostalgia, and to feel the rapid changes of their ancestral (home) country.
No matter where you are, sharing the year of reunion and saying goodbye to each other is a blessing.
"Don't cut off the true love in the long distance, don't forget the true love in the daily busyness, and don't ignore the true love in the day and night hard work." The same world, the same Spring Festival, this may be the Spring Festival "moving people with emotion" The most precious thing.
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