Some traditions in the Spring Festival( Chinese New Year) (1) Today is the most significant festival in China---Spring Festival. It is the first day of the year according to the lunar calendar. This is the reason why many people can't know the precise time of it because people around the world use the solar calendar in their daily life. This year is the Year of the Monkey. Why? As we all known, there are 12 kinds of zodiac, which were sorted l in a old Chinese myths. The sequence of the zodiac is: rat, ox tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat,monkey, rooster, dog, pig. The date of people's birthday decides what zodiac are they. It is similar to the constellation of each people. However, instead of being decided by the date of solar calendar, the zodiacs of each people depend on the date of lunar calendar. For instance, I was born in November, 7th, 1996. My zodiac is rat. For many people,whose zodiac is monkey, this year is their big year （本命年）.The people who were born in the year of the same animal should wear red clothing or at least a waist-belt so as to keep bad luck away. People would steam bread (man tou) 2 days before Chinese Spring Festival in order to pray the future will be flourishing. (there is a idiom in China: 蒸蒸日上, which can explain that reason). In addition, in countryside, people also offer sacrifice ( food like fruit, vegetable and some well-cooked meat) to worship ancestors. In the Spring festival Even, people would gather together with their friends and family to have a rich dinner. What people also do is setting off the firework and the firecracker. The reason why people do that is that a myths inspire people to do that. The myths is that: long long ago in China, a monster called ' 年' often appeared and ate lots of people in the Spring Festival Even. In order to frightened the monster away, people burnt bamboos to make big explosive sound and glaring fire light. That was the origin of firework and firecracker. The customs on Spring Festival's Eve in different districts are almost the same; while in some places, the customs are quite special, such as in Suzhou, Beijing and Taiwan. When staying up late in Suzhou, people always wait for the bell ring from the Han shan Temple, which is a sign of the coming year; Beijing people hold '踩岁 'activity by stepping on the sesame straw paved in the courtyard. NOT FINISHED YET, TO BE CONTINUE!!!