The “Zi Period”

If one asks what the Chinese do for New Years one of the answers would be watch and wait for the Zi Period.  The "Zi Period" is the between 11pm and 1am.  The “zi period” is the moment that everybody gears up for and there are many traditions that happen during this time.

Family Reunion
New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family reunion.  The Chinese New Year because of this, triggers the largest annual human migration.  The week before New Years millions of people migrate back home to join their family in celebration.  It is a time of reunion and thanksgiving.  The tradition was traditionally a ceremony to honor heaven and earth and worship ancestorship. 

The sacrifice to the ancestors was the most important ritual in ancient times and is still practiced today.  Ancestors are very important since they laid down the path for fortune and luck.  So on this day they remember their relatives that passed away and pay respect to them.  So during the Eve of the New Year the family will have a huge banquet filled with delicious foods such as fish.  The communal feast is called "surrounding the stove" or "weilu" (this is why the Kitchen God is an important deity).

It is said that on New Years Eve the Kitchen God and other Gods arrive during this period thus many locals burn incense in their honor.  They also burn the picture of the Kitchen God, paper chairs and paper ships in their honor to bid them farewell.  They also drop rice wine from three different cups in a toast to the Gods.  They then pay respect to a family tree that they create.

Exploding Firecrackers help usher the new year in the old out…
When this time came the people would start firing off the firecrackers and other kinds of fireworks. Usually traditionally would be to hang the belt somewhere or to hold them up with a long stick.  Now adays their dozens of kinds.  The origin of letting fireworks off is very interesting.  At first they used bamboo tubes. During the Tang Dynasty it was coming to use these tubes though with the wide use of papers, firecrackers in the Song dynasty were rolled into tubes out of many layers of paper.  Eventually in the Southern Song Dynasty double-kicks were made until locals began to put many firecrackers together looking like a whip cracking away after lit.  The paper eventually used was red so it became more colorful.

The famous quote in the Qing Dynasty described the emotion of Spring Festival and the Zi period of the Eve perfectly!, “When the night is changing into the Zi Period,” exploding firecrackers sounded like “surging waves and rumbling thunders that resounded throughout the night both inside and outside the royal court.”

New Year’s Eve “Zi” breakfast
What the southerners and northerners do could be different during the Zi period.  In north China it is common to eat Jiaozi.  As early as three kingdomn it was known that people ate wanton which look like a crescent.  The wanton was the precursor of the jiaozi.  The Jiaozi became important for New Year’s Eve celebration because of its meaning, “the coming of the zi cson period.”

According to the Stem branch calculation of the lunar method the last period of the day is called “Hai” and first period of the day is called “Zi” So at midnight the periods change from “Hai” to “Zi” ushering out the old and bringing in the new.  The eating of the Jiaozi symbolized this transition from old to new.

In southern China it is common for people to eat different foods.  Some people eat noodles since they stand for long life.  Some people eat spring rolls and cakes which symbolizes luck for the spring and a great harvest. Others may also eat tang yuan which are round and smooth with a sweet filling symbolizing that everything will go smoothly in the New Year.

No matter what they eat during these days eating is an important part of the celebration and the food will be prepared for days to get ready for the Zi Period. Keep in mind that traditions are different from county to county and province to province.