Chinese Single Day is a day for people who are single, celebrated on 11th November. There are four numbers "1" within this special date, which refers to singles. This holiday becomes popular among young people. It is originated from univerities, some univerity students choose this day to celebrate their bachelors' identities and want to find a girlfriend or boyfriend at that day. Some people organize parties or Karaoka or try their fortune.
As more and more people join the celebration of this holiday, it has become a good opportunity for companies targeting their consumers including online shopping websites. This day becomes the largest online shopping day in China. Alibaba group, the biggest e-commerce company, creates oneline shopping malls like Tmall and Taobao to satisfy young people's online shopping needs. The term "11.11 crazy online shopping" was trademarked by Alibaba group, the total transaction reached more than 9 billion USD for Taobao on Dec 11, 2014.
There is a joke about this day. Dec 11 is a day for people to find a girlfriend
and boyfriend, not being bachelors(In chinese, it can be expressed like “tuo li guang gun”）, Some companies use the abbreviation slogan (tuo guang) to attract people’s attention，however, it is the same pronunciation and chinese character owning another meaning, that is taking off your clothes and becoming naked.
To be honest, I have never thought that I would celebrate New Year’s Eve in a foreign country. But 2014 just liked a turning point. In this year, there were too many first times for me. Because of Christmas holiday, I celebrated New Year’s Eve in Barcelona, which was quite beautiful.
When it came to 22:00 o’clock, we drank some wine at hotel and then went to Spanish Square. Before we went out, the host gave twelve grapes to each of us. And he said it was a tradition in Span, which consists of eating a grape with each bell strike at midnight of December 31. It will lead to a new year of luck and prosperity.
When we arrived in Spanish Square, I was totally shocked. That situation just reminded me of a Chinese word, People Mountain People Sea. At that moment, I knew how important New Year’s Eve is for western people. Some people in the crowd wore costumes. At the final countdown, people ate twelve grapes with the rhythm of each number. When New Year came, people opened their champagne and reveled together.
Different from western people, Chinese people will pay much attention to Chinese New Year’s Eve (It will be celebrated on February 18th this year. According to Chinese lunisolar calendar, New Year’s Eve is the last day of the last month, whose date will change from year to year in western calendar. Chinese New Year is also called as “Spring Festival”, lasting from New Year’s Eve to the fifteenth day of the first month in New Year, which is Lantern Festival. On the eve of the festival, people won’t go out and just stay at home, closing the door. The whole families get together for a magnificent dinner and usually watch Spring Festival Evening Gala. People stay up late and at midnight, people open the door for good luck and let off fireworks.)
No matter where I am, New Year’s Eve in Barcelona will be remembered in my lifetime.
31 Dec 2014 was our last day in Barcelona, the beautiful city on seashore. We had spent five days in Barcelona, living in a hostel of a Chinese couple. That day we four Chinese girls enjoyed the dinner prepared by the hostel-owner with another Chinese girl and a Chinese boy. We drank red wine bought from the supermarket. We heard that people in Barcelona drank Champagne to celebrate the new year and there would be a celebration event in Spanish Square. Then we decided to spend the eve in Spanish Square.
The hostess gave each of us twelve grapes. In tradition here, eating one grape after each strike of clock brings you happiness for the whole year. We each brought a little bag of grapes going to the square. There were few people on streets except some bums. When we arrived the square at half past eleven it was already crowded. I have never seen so much people in public except for train stations in China in Spring Festival. A singer of traditional Catalonia music performed on the stage, with a band of drums. The beating rhythm welcomed the new year's arrival. We were glad that there was Chinese words of "welcome" on the big screen. People around me began dancing and singing. Some people wore special hat of clown, and blew some whistles of interesting sounds. At the counting down point, people held their champagne, ready to open them to celebrate. Hongya took every grape during the counting down. I was not able to catch the space. Then the new year came. We hugged each other. With the happy and exciting music, Hongya almost could not help crying. Under the sky with fireworks, lovers began kissing, as if they were the only persons in the world. More people began dancing. I could see faint twinkling tears in their eyes because of the joy of meeting the new year. There were also tears in my eyes.I was infected by the atmosphere. I had never thought of that I'd spend a new year's eve in Spain, with the enthusiastic Catalonian people.
When people withdrew from the square, the street were full of people moving slowly. They drank, danced, and sang. I had never seen so many people in Europe. As a citizen from crowded China I was shocked. Everywhere there were empty beer bottles. We saw cleaning machine working in some place where there were not so many people. In the dawn when we went out at about 4 to catch the flight the streets were all clean. We began discussing if this happened in China would the streets be clean in the next morning.
In the next morning, we heard the news that some chaos happened in Shanghai's new year eve which caused some victims. Remembering the scene last night, everything's in order. Anyway, this was a very good experience of new year's eve, especially those passionate people. We took videos and selfies in the square. Those pictures will keep our memory fresh even when we are old.
For New Year's Eve celebration, we normally choose between two options:
Spend the evening at the beach (where concerts take place or stay in a bar);
Book a Reveillon package in a Resort.
This year, my mother decided to go to a Resort in a city called Gravatá. Gravatá is in the state of Pernambuco and it is known as the 'Brazilian Switzerland', due to its location in the hills and the colder weather (even though it is located in the Northeast, temperatures there can be 10º C).
We booked a package of 4 nights, including the New Year's Eve party. The celebration had a buffet, a band playing and at midnight, Champagne and fireworks.
New Year's celebration
Before the evening itself, an important preparation to consider in New Year's is the colour of the clothes you are going to wear. For us, we must choose a colour that represents what we hope for the new year. For instance:
The meaning of the colours in New Year's Eve
You can either wear an entire outfit of one colour, or choose different parts, for instance, a white dress and red shoes.
In fairness, we have a few traditions during New Year's Eve, but the main popular ones are:
A few minutes before midnight, you must eat 7 Romãs (it's a typical fruit) and keep the seeds for the whole year in your wallet. This will bring you money.
Romã
After midnight or after the sunrise, one should skip 7 waves, in order to bring luck. We believe the sea cleans the soul and removes the bad feelings. So you can start the year fresh :)
At midnight, we all drink champagne, toast and watch the fireworks.
Like I mentioned before, another option is to go to the beach or to the city center. This is the most popular one, and what we usually do. There are concerts taking place in the main areas of the city, and famous Brazilian bands play until the sunrise.
The concert in Salvador/BA
New Year's Eve is mainly spent with your family, but young people normally meet their friends after midnight to party together. We usually have many resolutions for the new coming year and the Réveillon is the rite of passage to a fresh starter. I hope you liked knowing a bit more about our traditions and I wish you all a great start of 2015!
Normally, students at Chemnitz University of Technology would travel home to spend New Year's Eve with their family. It is tradition in my family to eat dinner at 6 p.m. and then sit together and talk or play games until midnight. Dinner consists of sausages, dumplings and sauerkraut (a cabbage dish). Another tradition in my family is to watch 'Dinner for One', a TV comedy show which is really popular here in Germany (Dinner for One). At midnight, we have some champagne and then are off to the attic where we watch the fireworks. Even for a small village as ours, there is always plenty to see :)
New Year's Eve in Neudorf
This year, I decided not to travel to my village, but to celebrate with some friends in Chemnitz. I invited my two best friends, an international student and an acquaintance. Germans are very hospitable and welcoming, so even international students who do not travel will find a place to stay for the celebration. We decided to have a buffet-style dinner and each of us prepared something. There was African fish and fufu, Greek potato salad, wraps, salmon pastries, pizza rolls, mince pastries and chocolate cake (for the recipe see my blog: Best Blog Ever :).
Our New Year's Eve Dinner
After dinner, we watched a movie and had some drinks ;) Then we watched, who would have guessed it, 'Dinner for one'. Five minutes before midnight, we grabbed our champagne and went up to the attic. The fireworks were amazing!!!
Since the Erzgebirge has a very varied Christmas tradition, I would like to give a glimpse of what Christmas is like in the region of Annaberg.
Christmas Eve usually starts off with the cutting of Christmas tree in the morning - however, this tradition seems so get lost because many people already put up their trees weeks in advance. The tree is then decorated usually with red baubles and bows. Then it is already time to prepare lunch, which is a part of the famous "Neunerlei" (nine different kinds of food that are eaten on Christmas Eve). For lunch, we always prepare a sweet and sour lentil soup with sausages. As every tradition has a certain cultural meaning, lentils in the Erzgebirge stand for having enough pennies for the upcoming new year.
On Christmas Eve, we never stop eating - in the afternoon we cut the Stollen for the first time and enjoy the first pieces with a cup of coffee. Right after that, the preparations begin for the "Neunerlei" dinner. The main course of the dinner is dumplings (made from cooked potatoes), Sauerkraut and Bratwurst. Here, the dumplings, similar to the lentils, characterize the "Taler" which stand for the "big money". ;) The popular belief is that the more you eat of these dumplings, the more money you will have next year. I ate just two dumplings, let's see if that was enough to have plenty of money in 2015. The other side dishes that belong to the "Neunerlei" are pickled fish salad, cooked celery, blueberries, sweet milk with nuts and rolls (my all-time favorite) and beet salad. These side dishes naturally have all their traditional meanings as well, for example the beet salad is said to be for a healthy look and red cheeks in the following year. If you are interested in the Neunerlei tradition, here is a Wikipedia link: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neunerlei to read on.
After this feast, we normally go for a walk around our village and take a look at the beautifully enlighted windows and gardens. Most of the people exchange presents on Christmas Eve, but we wait until Christmas Day to do so. On Christmas Day, our what I call "Hop-On-Hop-Off Christmas" starts. Christmas is a family celebration and we always try to meet all of our close relatives and spend some time together. The 25th takes place at the house of my parents-in-law together with my boyfriend's grandma and grandpa. On this day, we eat goose, dumplings and red cabbage. On December 26, we hop to the next family members: my boyfriend's dad and his wife and enjoy a delicious dinner and an after dinner walk in Stollberg.
The days after Christmas we try to eat all leftovers from the days before, which is not always easy since no one is really hungry...
In
Catalonia, we celebrate Christmas in a slightly different way than in the rest
of Spain.
In
Catalonia, it is traditional to build, in our houses, a small Nativity Scene representing the scene of birth of Jesus, which we call “Pessebre”. The tratidional "Pessebre" is made of actual
materials such as moss, branches, water, cork, etc.
We also include clay figures, being “El Caganer”
an emblematic Catalan figurine. “El Caganer” (which literally translates as “The
Crapper) is a traditional figurine wearing the traditional Catalan red cap (barretina) and is depicted in the act of defecation. For the past decades, it has
become popular to include figures of "The Caganer” representing all kind of public
figures, such as Angela Merkel, Elvis, Albert Einstein, the Pope, or Leo Messi.
Often, on the streets of some Catalan towns, there are also live representations of the “Pessebre”, in which their protagonists mantain their positions in a steady state for some hours.
Another
Catalan Christmas tradition is a typical theatrical representation known in Catalan as “Els
Pastorets” (the Shepherds). These representations combine the birth of Jesus with several
stories of shepherds looking back on the first Christmas celebration.
One
of the most emblematic Catalan Christmas tradition is the presence of the
mythological creature "Tió de Nadal" (meaning in English "Christmas Log"). This magical
creature comes from the woods and gets into your home seeking for food and a warm place
to stay. Therefore, we cover him with a blanket and give him some food
every night, usually mandarins. While the children are sleeping, the parents
peel those mandarins and leave the peels on the plate. On the next morning, the
children are excited to see that the "Tió de Nadal" is eating well.
On Christmas day, or Christmas Eve, the "Tió de Nadal" is ordered to defecate (seems like we have a weird obsession going on here ;) ). In order to make it defecate, children beat the "Tió de Nadal" with a wooden stick, while singing traditional songs "threatening" the poor "Tió de Nadal": "if you do not defecate sweet stuff, I will beat you again", sing the Catalan kids.
Traditionally, after singing the songs, the children were asked to leave the room and go to pray for the "Tió de Nadal" to defecate nice presents (usually chocolates, candy or small toys). Nowadays, children are not asked to go to pray anymore, but parents still manage to make them leave the room for a moment. At this point, parents use their chance to place the presents under the blanket. When the kids come back, they discover that the "Tió de Nadal" has defecated some delicious stuff, Once the kids grow up and discover the secret, presents are placed directly under the blanket. However, the kids continue to perform the ritual, yet knowing that the presents are already there (sometimes the youngest ones do not even realize it).
In the following video, you can see children performing this ritual at their school:
Regarding important dates in the Catalan Christmas, we also celebrate the 26th
of December, commemorating the Feast of St. Stephen. On this day, it is tradition to have lunch with the other part of the family with whom you couldn't celebrate Christmas the previous day. It is common to serve for lunch "Canelons", a kind of pasta rolled and stuffed with minced roasted meat. The "Canelons" are topped with béchamel sauce and cheese, and then grilled in the oven.
In Catalonia, we do not get our presents from Santa Claus, but from the Three Wise Men, or Three Kings, whom we know as the "Reis Mags". These three kings, guided by a star, visited Jesus when he was born and brought him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. In Catalonia, the kings come the night of the 5th of January.
At that evening, everybody goes to see the Cavalcade of Magi, a traditional parade in which the Three Kings and their assistants ride through the city and throw candies to the children, who excitedly welcome them. By the time the parade is over, and the families arrive home, the Three Kings have already been there and and left the children's presents under the Christmas tree.
On the 28th of December, we celebrate The Massacre of the Innocents, which we call "Dia Dels Sants Innocents". It is tradition on this day to play practical jokes and hoaxes on each other, similarly to April Fool's Day. The most traditional hoax is to sneakily stick a piece of paper on someone's back.
One of the most traditional Catalan foods served during Christmas is thetorró, typically made of honey, sugar and egg whites. Often, it also includes toasted nuts, such as almonds, and they are shaped into a rectangular tablet.
Neules are another typical Catalan biscuit traditionally dipped into Cava before eaten (Cava is a sparkling wine mostly produced in Catalonia, similar to champagne). Neules consist of egg whites, butter, sugar and flour. The dough is thinly pressed and then rolled into a cylindrical shape. These days, neules coated in chocolate are quickly gaining popularity among the Catalans.
I hope you found the Catalan Christmas traditions interesting and enjoyed this post. If you want to know more, please do not hesitate to leave your questions in the comments, I will be glad to answer them.
