Decorations

Explore how the Chinese people decorate their homes and streets on the New Year with unique art work and crafts.

In the lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year plays a vital role and you wouldn't be surprised to see Chinese families decorating their dwellings with various Chinese New Year crafts made for this particular festival. From inside the houses to outsides on the city streets, China shines in color throughout the season.

From beautiful blossoms to platters of food there is a wide variety of Chinese New Year decoration items that are reserved for the occasion. There are certain decoration items that have become symbols for this time of the year. The array of decoration items is wide and colorful.

Plants and flowers play a significant role in the New Year decorations in China. Besides Chinese people are famous for their attachment to the nature. During the New Years event, houses of Chinese people are seen blooming with different flowers and plants that symbolize growth and prosperity that promise to come in the coming year.

Plum blossoms are generally used natural blossoms for the decorations around this time because it is during this New Year time that they starts blooming. They are bound together with bamboo and pine springs. This rare combination signifies the grouping of friends and family during season of the year.

The two significant values the plum blossoms are supposed to represent are reliability and perseverance. The compatibility factor is represented by the bamboo due to its flexible nature and the evergreen nature of pine is a traditional mark of eternity. Other flowers used also are azalea, water lily, narcissus, and peony.

Fruits too have a role in New Year decoration and are usually found in Chinese households during the season. Oranges and tangerines are taken to be most popular and are often given by friends who come over for a visit. Tangerines symbolize maintenance of a long relationship and happiness.

Candy trays are perhaps the best gifts during the Chinese New Year season and as far as kids are involved, they wouldn't disagree! These candy trays with a large amount of candies are a specially designed item for the New Year. They are known as trays of togetherness and a large number of exciting varieties of most delicious candies are kept on them.

This candy tray also has another ritual following it up where an adult takes a candy and replaces it by keeping a red envelope in the tray that consists of some kind of good luck icon for the residentsoffering it. Generally the candy tray consists of candied melon of different variety like lychee nut, peanuts, coconut, and cumquat etc. all of which have special meanings.

A large proportion of the New Year decorations are centered around the particular animal which represents the year. This has been the tradition for many years and is still practiced on New Years Day today.