How they celebrate Christmas in China

How do they celebrate Christmas in China? This question is asked by all of us who are curious to know about the manners from other towns. And it is even more pertinent if we consider that the Asian colossus only has a few twenty five million Catholics. We could therefore think that the Chinese do not celebrate Christmas, the Christian holiday par excellence.

However, this is not the case, or at least not entirely. Globalization has brought a certain homogeneity in customs and, although the Chinese do not feel the religious fervor that is appreciated in the West, this time is also important there from other perspectives. Therefore, we are going to explain to you how they celebrate Christmas in China.

How they celebrate Christmas in China: customs and traditions

When it comes to seeing how they celebrate Christmas in China, we must differentiate between large cities and smaller towns. While in the latter it goes almost unnoticed, in the most important cities such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou or Shanghai, the celebrations have taken a major boom. This is mainly due to the large amount of Western who live in them and have managed to transmit to the Chinese the taste for this festival.

The streets and shopping malls

In fact, many of these cities adorn their streets with Christmas themes in the way that European and American women do. It is therefore not uncommon to see decorated Christmas trees, lights and shop windows.

But above all they are large shopping centers who are in charge of giving strength to Christmas. In Chinese cities there are chains such as Wall Mart or Carrefour, which decorate their facilities just like in the West and which have managed to infect the Chinese with the taste for Christmas shopping.

The new Year

However, the citizens of the Asian giant who are not Catholic lack traditions such as Christmas Eve dinner, Santa Claus or the end of the year. As for the latter, they do celebrate it in style. What happens is that they do it in the so-called Chinese New Year, which takes place in late January or early February and is the main winter celebration in that country.

It is also known as Spring Party and then the Chinese do gather as a family to eat, generally jiaozi or ravioli, and celebrate the entrance of the new year. And they even celebrate their New Years Eve, which they call chuxi, and they follow several traditional customs that last for fifteen days. Among these, the famous dragon parades, decoration with flags and, above all, a huge amount of pyrotechnics.

In addition, the houses are decorated with the Yu fish, to mean this word "abundance", and with some figures that act as gate keepers to take care of the house at the entrance of Nian, a creature from their mythology that attacks children. They are also given the on red o hong bao with a small amount of money and dance the dragon and lion dances to drive away evil spirits.

Curiously, there is a bearded character who walks through the houses dressed in a red tunic and wearing a yellow jacket. But in this case he embodies the god of wealth and hands out pictures in exchange for tips. And songs are also sung as we do with Christmas carols, although it is done to ask for prosperity in the year that begins. Are the chun lian.

On the other hand, as you may already know, every Chinese New Year, is named after an animal. Thus, there is the Year of the Rat or the Year of the Tiger. What you may not know is why. The legend says that Buddha summoned all the animals before leaving Earth. Only twelve species attended and, as a reward, he dedicated a year to each of them in order of arrival. The first was precisely the rat. But also, according to the beliefs of the Chinese, the animal of the year you are born has a great influence on your whole life. By the way, this 2020 is again that of the rat.

The trips

It is a deeply ingrained custom in China travel during christmas. Many make it to western countries to see how we celebrate those dates. Most of them do not travel for religious reasons, but for ethnological curiosity or to shop. However, many other Chinese people move to Asian nations where the climate is milder and they can enjoy the beach and the sea.

How Christian Chinese Celebrate Christmas

But, going back to Christmas in the western style, it is only celebrated by the chinese christians. They do decorate their houses with the tree and the nativity scene, meet for dinner at Good night and they even attend Rooster masses that are officiated in the main cities of the country such as Beijing or Hong Kong.

They also sing western carols, which are all translated into their language, although they prefer to interpret the English versions. And they even have their own Santa Claus. They call it Dun Che Lao Ren o lankhoong, Meaning "The old man of Christmas" and also brings gifts to the smallest of the house.

Despite everything we have told you, we must point out that among the youngest Chinese it has been observed for a few years a growing trend to celebrate Christmas western style. Not for religious reasons, but because, for them, everything that comes from America and Europe is a trend. For this reason, more and more they celebrate Christmas Eve dinners, celebrate the Christian New Year and give each other gifts from Santa Claus.

In conclusion, we have explained to you how they celebrate Christmas in China, focusing on the peculiarities of that culture so different from ours but, precisely for this reason, so enriching for us.