Celebrating Chinese New Year at ESSEC

By Dingqian (John) Zhang, Global MBA 2013-2014, China

Chinese New Year arrived on January 30th with a big traditional ceremony in China, where people have a one week holiday to gather with their families. For people who live far away from home, this is their once chance per year to go back to visit with no excuses necessary.

ESSEC Chine, the Chinese student club at ESSEC, organized two events for Chinese New Year. The first was to invite all students to make dumplings, which are traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve. The second was to watch the Spring Festival Gala Evening Show on CCTV, China’s Central Television Channel. These two events represent the typical Chinese tradition for celebrating the Lunar New Year. A majority of Chinese people will eat dumplings and watch the TV show at home on New Year’s Eve. The dumplings represent a wish for good luck in the coming year.

ESSEC Chine with M. Blanquer, Dean of ESSEC, on New Year's Eve

This year is also special for France because it marks the 50th anniversary of Franco-Chinese diplomatic relations. To celebrate, CCTV invited Sophie Marceau, a famous French actress, to perform a French song with a Chinese singer on the Spring Festival Gala Evening Show in China. She was the only foreign guest invited on this year’s show and people seemed to like her a lot.

Sophie Marceau on the Spring Festival Gala Evening Show on January 30th

 The origin of Chinese New Year dates too far back to be traced. The most common story about the origin of the festival is that a monster started to prey on people during the night before the new year. The monster was named “Nian,” which means “year” in modern Chinese. The legend says that the beast “Nian” had a very big mouth that could swallow many people in one bite and on New Year’s Eve “Nian” would come out to attack people, animal and property. The people found out, however, that “Nian” is afraid of the color red, fire and loud sounds. In order to protect themselves, people began to light fireworks, hang lanterns, and put the color red in front of their houses.

Preparations for the spring festival tend to begin a month before New Year’s Eve, similar to western Christmas celebrations where people buy presents, decorate, and prepare Christmas food starting a month beforehand. People will also do a major household clean up to sweep away any traces of bad luck. The doors and windows are then decorated with paper cut outs and couplets with themes such as happiness, wealth, and longevity printed on them.