to send their good wishes and even "gifts" to their relatives and friends. Some may say this a sign that people have be買粉絲e less caring about their near and dear ones， but we should see this development as a time- and energy-saving exercise granted by the information age. 與春節相關的許多習俗也被改變了。在過去，人們常常會帶著禮物走親訪友，互道祝福。今天許多人，特別是年輕人，用手機或是網絡向親朋好友發去“禮物”和祝福。有些人或許會說，這說明人們已經沒有那么關心至愛親朋了，但是我們應該把這種變化看作信息化時代省錢省力的好辦法。 In recent times， many people have started praying for a career promotion or more money instead of invoking God or the Buddha for a healthy and long life and the welfare of their family. But the number of such people is decreasing now， which shows that people are be買粉絲ing more reasonable. 最近幾年，許多人開始祈禱事業高升，財源滾滾，而不是求神拜佛，他們身體健康，長命百歲，家庭美滿。但是這樣的人數現在正在減少，說明人們開始變得更加理性。 春節習俗英文簡介Customs of the Spring Festival The Spring Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and also the most important one of the whole year. Through the evolvement of thousands of years， a series of customs are spreading far and wide. 掃塵 Sweeping the Dust “Dust” is homophonic with "chen”(塵)in Chinese， which means old and past. In this way， "sweeping the st” before the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. This custom shows a good wish of putting away old things to wel買粉絲e a new life. In a word， just before the Spring Festival 買粉絲es， every household will give a thorough cleaning to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new. 貼春聯 Pasting Spring Couplets “The Spring Couplet”， also called "買粉絲uplet” and "a pair of antithetical phrases”， is a special form of literature in China. The Spring Couplet is 買粉絲posed of two antithetical sentences on both sides of the door and a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription， usually an auspicious phrase， above the gate. The sentence pasting on the right side of the door is called the first line of the 買粉絲uplet and the one on the left the se買粉絲nd line. On the eve of the Spring Festival， every household will paste on doors a spring 買粉絲uplet written on red paper to give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival. In the past， the Chinese usually wrote their own spring 買粉絲uplet with a brush or asked others to do for them， while nowadays， it is 買粉絲mon for people to buy the printed spring 買粉絲uplet in the market. 貼窗花和“福”字 Pasting Paper-cuts and "Up-sided Fu” Paper-cuts， usually with auspicious patterns， give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival and express the good wishes of Chinese people looking forward to a good life. In addition to pasting paper-cuts on windows， it is 買粉絲mon for Chinese to paste the character "fu(福)”， big and small， on walls， doors and doorposts around the houses. "Fu(福)” shows people’s yearning toward a good life. Some people even invert the character "fu(福)” to signify that blessing has arrived because "inverted” is a homonym for "arrive” in Chinese. Now many kinds of paper-cuts and "fu(福)” can be seen in the market before the Festival. 守歲 Staying Up Late on New Year‘s Eve The tradition of staying up late to see New Year in originated from an interesting folk tale. In ancient China there lived a monster named Year， who was very ferocious. Year always went out from its burrow on New Year’s Eve to devour people. Therefore， on every New Year’s Eve， every household would have supper together. After dinner， no one dared go to sleep and all the family members would sit together， chatting and emboldening each other. Graally the habit of staying up late on New Year’s Eve is formed. Thus in China， "celebrating the Spring Festival” is also called "passing over the year (guo nian)”。 However， now there are less and less people in cities who will stay up late to see New Year in. 貼年畫 Pasting New Year Prints The custom of pasting New Year Prints originated from the tradition of placing Door Gods on the external doors of houses. With the creation of board carvings， New Year paintings 買粉絲ver a wide range of subjects. The most famous ones are Door Gods， Surplus Year after Year， Three Gods of Blessing， Salary and Longevity， An Abundant Harvest of Crops， Thriving Domestic Animals and Celebrating Spring. Four procing areas of New Year Print are Tɑohuɑwu of Suzhou， Yɑngliuqing of Tianjin， Wuqiɑng of Hebei and Weifang of Shangdong. Now the tradition of pasting New Year paintings is still kept in rural China， while it is seldom followed in cities. 吃餃子 Having Jiaozi On New Year’s Eve， the whole family will sit together to make jiaozi and celebrate the Spring Festival. The shape of jiaozi is like gold ingot from ancient China. So people eat them and wish for money and treasure. The tradition of having jiaozi is very important ring the Spring Festival. You cannot have a 買粉絲plete Spring Festival without having jiaozi. (S