I Got You an Apple: Christmas in China

So one of the best things I've learned throughout my language learning is the difference in holiday traditions. Due to the time of year, I felt I should share a little bit about that.

One main difference is when countries celebrate the "new year". In America, we celebrate it between December and January, but in a lot of other countries they celebrate at a different time. The Chinese New Year is a really big holiday that causes a lot of workers to get at least a week off. Some people can get up to two weeks off for this day which they will travel home and spend with their families. This is pretty common to what we celebrate here as well.

My friend, Jing, was able to send me some photos from Tianjin.

Two different traditions they do involve cleaning out their houses. This is done as a way to remove any "bad spirits" that may reside from the previous year in hopes of starting the new year with only good spirits. There is also decorations that are put up. This isn't so much the way that we do to celebrate but instead to scare away. The decorations are meant to scare away any new spirits or ghosts that may be in the streets coming to bring bad times to your family.

Strawberries for Christmas!

Before you judge, remember that we are the people who grow up learning not to stop on cracks in the sidewalk for our mother's safety. We are worried of "jinxing" ourselves and believe the best way to rid ourselves of this is to find the nearest wood and knock on it......okay.

Most recently, I was talking to a few people about how Christmas is celebrated. As Christmas has turned into more of a holiday for buying gifts, it is partially treated that way in China. It isn't celebrated as a traditional holiday, more of a "Hallmark Holiday." The unique part is more around Christmas Eve. In China, this is celebrated by giving people apples, the fruit. It is common to give somebody an apple as a way of wishing them well on Christmas Eve. Sure, this seems truly strange as apple prices rise with the demand and they can even cost extra if they are pre-wrapped, but there is an extremely simple explanation for all of this. In Mandarin, Christmas Eve is 平安夜 (Píng'ān yè) which has the word for apple in it as well (苹果Píngguǒ). Basically, they use the name to determine what to do with it.

Apples at the office for all the employees.

For all my friends learning Mandarin, I wish an apple on you and your family today. To the rest of you, I wish you a happy holiday season, whichever you celebrate. We all celebrate our holidays differently, but what they all center around is family.

Until next time.