Chinese Language Learning » Chinese Tradition

Greetings For Chinese New Year

Andrew — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:56:06 +0000

Only a few days, we will enjoy the Chinese Spring festival with family and friends.I believe you have to say something for the coming year. Here are some common options with rough English translations for greeting Chinese in Tiger Year.

Nǐ 你 and nín 您 can be interchanged depending how formal you want to be. And you may or may not need a”zhù nǐ/nín” 祝你/您 (“wishing you”) before each of these.

Year of the Tiger Messages

hǔ nián kuàilè 虎年快乐 = Happy Year of the Tiger
hǔ nián jíxiáng 虎年吉祥 = Have a lucky Year of the Tiger
hǔ nián xíng dà yùn 虎年行大运 = May the Year of the Tiger bring you great luck
xīhǔ zhù nín hǔ nián wàng 犀虎祝您虎年旺 = May the rhinoceros-tiger bring you a prosperous Year of the Tiger*

Standard New Year’s Greetings

dà jí dà lì 大吉大利 = Good luck and good profit (see also New Year’s puns)
gōnghè xīnxǐ 恭贺新喜 = Happy New Year
gōngxǐ fācái 恭喜发财 = get rich
guò nián hǎo 过年好 = Happy New Year
jiā hé wàn shì xīng 家和万事兴 = If the family lives in harmony, all affairs will prosper
niánnián gāoshēng 年年高升 = get a promotion every year
shēntǐ jiànkāng 身体健康 = have good health
shìshì rúyì 事事如意 = everything go according to your wishes
shìshì shùnlì 事事順利 = everything go smoothly
wànshì rúyì 万事如意 = all your wishes come true
xīnnián kuàilè 新年快乐 = Happy New Year
xīn xiǎng shì chéng = wishes come true
xiàokǒu chángkāi 笑口常开 = always smile

Heart Marathon

Sheila also gave me this as an example of a longer message friends might send to each other. This one features the character for “heart” at the end of every line:

hǔ nián zhùyuàn nín: gōngzuò shūxīn, xīnshuǐ héxīn, bèiwō nuǎnxīn, péngyou zhīxīn, àirén tóngxīn, yíqiè shùnxīn, yǒngyuǎn kāixīn, shìshì chènxīn
虎年祝愿您：工作舒心，薪水合心，被窝暖心，朋友知心，爱人同心，一切顺心，永远开心，事事称心！

Here’s the breakdown:

hǔ nián zhùyuàn nín 虎年祝愿您… = this Year of the Tiger I wish you…

gōngzuò shūxīn 工作舒心 = comfortable work
xīnshuǐ héxīn 薪水合心 = suitable salary
bèiwō nuǎn xīn 被窝暖心 = warm-hearted bed
péngyou zhīxīn 朋友知心 = caring friends
àirén tóngxīn 爱人同心 = harmonious marriage
yíqiè shùnxīn 一切顺心 = happy everything
yǒngyuǎn kāixīn 永远开心 = eternal happiness
shìshì chènxīn 事事称心 = everything satisfactory

Anyone else know any other standard New Year’s greetings we can send as text messages? Do share.

*Apparently there are five kinds of tigers in traditional Chinese lore. Here’s Sheila’s explanation:

五虎给你来拜年，犀虎祝您虎年旺，奶虎愿您体健康，黄虎为您送事业，水虎给您保平安，犛虎伴您游天下。

I think I’ll save a more in-depth look at that (and pinyin transcription) for a later post, unless someone else would like to explicate that and give me the link. That would be even better!

Chinese Lion Dance

Andrew — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:59:45 +0000

The Chinese Lion Dance goes back some one thousand years. The first record of the performance of an early form of the Lion Dance dates to the early Ch’in and Han Dynasties (Third Century B.C.) From the fourth day to the fifteenth of the New Year, lion dance groups would tour from village to village in traditional China.

Both lions and dragons figure in Chinese Spring Festival and other celebrations throughout the year.People believe that the lion is a lucky beast that expresses joy and happiness. Therefore, the lion dance plays an important role at official celebrations and happy events to summon luck and fortune.

Chinese lion dances can be broadly categorised into two styles, Northern (bei shi) and Southern (nan shi). Northern dance was used as entertainment for the imperial court. The northern lion is usually red, orange, and yellow (sometimes with green fur for the female lion), shaggy in appearance, with a golden head. The northern dance is acrobatic and is mainly performed as entertainment. Sometimes, they perform dangerous stunts.

Chinese Lunar Calendar

Andrew — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:14:42 +0000

The Chinese lunar calendar is very important on agriculture,ceremony,Chinese festival,wedding,etc for Chinese people. It is not special to belong to China, but followed by greater other Asian countries. It is often referred to as the Chinese lunar calendar because it was first perfected by the Chinese around 500 BCE . In most of East Asia today, the Gregorian calendar is used for day to day activities, but the Chinese calendar is still used for marking traditional East Asian holidays such as the Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival (春节), not to be confused with Lunar New Year, which is the beginning for several lunisolar calendars), the Duan Wu festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and in astrology, such as choosing the most auspicious date for a wedding or the opening of a building. Because each month follows one cycle of the moon, it is also used to determine the phases of the moon.
The Chinese Lunar New Year is the longest chronological record in history,when the Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the zodiac. Like the Western calendar, The Chinese Lunar Calendar is a yearly one, with the start of the lunar year being based on the cycles of the moon. So, because of this cyclical dating, the beginning of the year can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February. This year it falls on February 12th. A complete cycle takes 60 years and is made up of five cycles of 12 years each.