What preparations should be made before the Spring Festival?

I spent the Spring Festival in Hong Kong last year. It's rare that I didn't go on a business trip and didn't need to go to work. Finally, I can feel the atmosphere of the Spring Festival in Hong Kong. If young people do anything on Lunar New Year's Eve, it is to have dinner at home and go for a walk at the Victoria Lunar New Year's Eve market. Because it is the last day of the flower market, merchants begin to make final efforts to promote their products, especially flowers. Many people come here with the mentality of buying cheap goods, but shopping is not the main purpose. The key is the feeling of swaying in the crowd.

Speaking of the Spring Festival, all families will have a reunion dinner at their elders' home on the 30th. No matter how busy they are, they still want to have New Year's Eve dinner. Christmas belongs to friends, and Spring Festival belongs to family. In fact, there is no change in the food of the reunion dinner every year. It's all well-meaning dishes. I usually feel bad, but when it comes to the Spring Festival, I suddenly feel better. On New Year's Day, some people will travel abroad with their families, which is called "avoiding the Year" to avoid the monster "Year". People who stay at home can pay New Year greetings everywhere. Everyone is busy with work this year, so we should take this opportunity to meet and talk. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, you can watch fireworks, float parades and various carnivals. Staying at home is not lonely.

When I was a child, the busiest thing was to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner. For children, the happiest thing is to put on new clothes and get lucky money from adults. In college, winter vacation is the most important thing for those students from other places. Seeing that they are busy preparing different new year's goods and gifts before going home, I have already felt their New Year's mood. After graduating from college, I stayed in Shenzhen for two years. Because it is an immigrant city, most people are eager to go back to their hometown before the Spring Festival. In the Spring Festival, Shenzhen immediately became deserted.

Now, the Spring Festival is coming. In Beijing this year, I asked my colleagues in Beijing how to spend the Spring Festival. They said, in fact, it is no different from spending Sunday. I don't know if many people feel this way, but I saw a report that some merchants skipped the Spring Festival and focused on Valentine's Day after the Spring Festival.

Many people say that people in China, especially some cities in mainland China, have begun to lose the flavor of the traditional Spring Festival. Actually, I don't think so. It seems that in Beijing, many people listen to the first bell of the New Year in the news reports every year. There are also many temple fairs in Beijing, which should be a good place for everyone to celebrate the New Year. The key point is that the attraction of these things to everyone has only decreased, but what is the reason for the decrease?

I worked in Beijing for a long time last year and found that Christmas was particularly popular in Beijing. Eat Christmas dinner, send Christmas cards, send Christmas messages, hold Christmas parties, and even some of my friends who think they are not young and fashionable have begun to celebrate this foreign festival.

Some people say that economy determines culture, which makes sense. Christmas has become a good opportunity for businesses to make profits, thus creating an environment in which Christmas must be celebrated in society. If it's not enough, it's a bit outdated. I just read an article written by an American, and I don't understand that China people are keen on Christmas, because this religious festival is a day for family reunion and expression of feelings for westerners, and it is not so materialistic.

In fact, Hong Kong has done a very good job in celebrating the Spring Festival. Hong Kong is a unique place. Although westernized, the traditional festivals in China are still well preserved. Hong Kong's public holidays include not only Christmas, but also Tomb-Sweeping Day, Chung Yeung Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. It is precisely because of this that young people will know what to do on what traditional festivals. Before the Spring Festival, Hong Kong will launch a tender for the Lunar New Year's Eve booth in Victoria Park. Smart Hong Kong people think this is a good opportunity to make money. Every year, many young people take advantage of these days to do business together. For the media, every move in the new year's market is a good story. The custom of eating vegetables in walled villages in the New Territories of Hong Kong has now been commercialized, and it has become an important part for people in Hong Kong to feel the New Year custom in rural areas of Hong Kong. There are also wishing trees in the New Territories. Every Spring Festival, a large number of fashionable young people throw out their wishes. In fact, this is not superstition, but the infinite charm of these traditional customs during the Spring Festival. These are all worth learning.

Our festival tradition is full of charm, but it needs packaging. Beijing is a prosperous and ancient international metropolis with a deeper traditional culture than Hong Kong. If we learn from the Spring Festival in Hong Kong and do some traditional packaging, our annual flavor will surely become stronger and stronger. I am looking forward to spending the New Year in Beijing this year.