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The spirit of the forefathers is acknowledged on New Year’s Eve with a dinner prepared for them at the family banquet table. The presence of the ancestors, together with the living family members, celebrates the new start of the New Year as a great unity. The collective banquet called “surrounding the stove” or Wei Lu. It symbolizes family unity or consolidation and blesses the past and present generations. One old legend is that there was a beast called Nian who had a very big mouth that would swallow many people with one bite, which made people feel very scared. One day, an old man came and took actions to protect people and wanted to bring Nian under control. He said to Nian deliberately, “I heard that you are very excellent, but can you swallow the other beasts of prey with one bite on earth rather than people who are by no means of your worthy opponents?” So it did swallow many of the beasts of prey on earth that also harried people and their domestic animals from time to time. After that, the old man disappeared riding the beast Nian. He turned out to be an immortal god. Before the old man left, he had told people to put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year’s end to drive away Nian just in case it sneaked back to hurt people again because red is the color that the beast feared the most. After Nian was gone and also other beasts of prey were so scared that they went back to forests, people gradually started to enjoy their peaceful life. From then on, the tradition of observing the conquest of Nian is carried on from generation. The term “Guo Nian” just means “Survive the Nian”. Today “Celebrate the Year” can be seen as the word “Guo” in Chinese which has both the meaning of “pass-over” and “observe”.
2.2 The Origin of Christmas
The history of Christmas dates back to two thousand years ago. The origin of Christmas which is different from the precise date of the birth and history of Jesus are much debated (Dawson 15). In the Western world, the birth day of Jesus Christ has been celebrated on December 5th since 354 A.D., replacing an earlier date of January 6th. Christmas, literally meaning the Mass of Christ, is a traditional holiday in the Christian calendar. Christmas is also celebrated as a secular holiday throughout the world including countries with small Christian populations like India. Various theories of the origin of Christmas exist that give a clear insight into the study of Christmas. Mid-winter festivals in ancient Babylon and Egypt, and Germanic fertility festivals also took place at this time. The birth of the ancient sun-god Helios in Phrygia was celebrated on December 25th, as was the birth of the Persian sun-god, Mithras. Public gathering places were decorated with flowers, gifts and candles which were exchanged including slaves and masters who celebrated the occasion with great enthusiasm.
The Celtic culture of the British Isles revered all green plants, but particularly mistletoe and holly. These were important symbols of fertility and were used for decorating their homes and altars. In Italy, a tradition developed for re-enacting the birth of Christ and the construction of scenes of the nativity. That is to say, these have been developed with bringing spiritual knowledge to the laity. Saints Days have also contributed to our Christmas celebrations. A prominent figure in today’s Christmas is Saint Nicholas who for centuries has been honored on December 6th. He was one of the forerunners of Santa Claus. Another popular ritual was the burning of the Yule Log, which is strongly embedded in the pagan worship of vegetation and fire, as well as being associated with magical and spiritual powers. Since numerous festivities found their roots in pagan practices, they were greatly frowned upon by conservatives within the Church. The feasting, gift-giving and frequent activities presented a drastic contrast with the simplicity of the Nativity, and many people throughout the centuries condemn that such practices are contrary to the true spirit of Christmas.