The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-01-28
THE CHINESE NEW YEAR.
How IL is Celebrated and some Of Its
Disadvantages.

Lear ohly are the shops closed and all
business suspended. The date of this feast
is veritable one but it always comes not
earlier than January 2l or later than Feb
ruary 10, falling on the first new moon
after the sun enters Aquarius.
1t is season of rejoicing and merry
making in all classes of society. The
holiday is legal one for three days only;
but its celebration actually continues much
longer. Many shops are closed for a fort
night, and for a much more prolonged
period it is often very difficult to have
various kinds of work DONE In Shanghai
and Hong Kong, which are the two princi-
pal open ports of China, the tradcsmen,
tailOrs, shoemakers, carpenters, painters,
ETC., have many employees coming from
the inland districts and surrounding
country. Nearly all these men go to their
homes for the holiday season, which causes
great delay before all the wheels of business
are set turning again.
These facts conspire with others to make
the season one Of considerable inconveni-
ence to foreign housekeeper in China
She must be blind to the Disappearance of
half her usual staff of domestics and to the
flushed faces and unsteady gait of those who
remain She must also be deaf to sounds
of merry making proceeding from the ser
wants quarters Her purse as well as her
patience is severely taxed, as she is cx-
peeted to give each servant in her employ
a present in money equal in amount to his
monthly wages. If no presents were
given, she would be punished for many
months by poor service and sulky faces
And this is not all If she be the wife of
"largee mar" !. e., man occupying an
important position. she will have been
deluged at Christmas with gifts of turkeys,
live sheep, boxes of tea, baskets of oranges
and apples, etc., from her tradespeople, and
with rolls of silk, valuable furs, embroid-
cries, and curios from Chinese merchants
and mandarins, who may chance to have
some business connection with her husband.
These presents must now be suitably re-
turned. The tradespeoplc are supposed to
be sufficiently repaid by continuance of
patronage; but the master of the house
must return the more valuable Gift made to
his wife by sending the donors cases Of
champagne, boxes of cigars, clocks, watches,
and musical boxes, all of which are articles
regarded with especial favor by the upper
classes of Chinese.
A foreign merchant finds his business
affairs greatly hampered by the absence of
many Chinese from the town, and BY the
unbounded Publications and cups of 4sam
slu' Chinese whiskey) indulged in for
several weeks by those who remain. The
reward of foreigners for the inconvenienecs
undergone at this season is in the oportu-
mites it affords them for picking up rare
and valuable eurios at low prices. The
universal Chinese custom is that all debts
must be paid and accounts settled with the
ending of the old year. In order to do.
this many families are obliged to part with.
heirlooms and long-cherished treasures at a
great sacrifice.
All the cities now assume very gay ap-
pearance, the outside Of the houses being
decorated with fanciful lanterns, large
sprays of artificial flowers, and strips of red
paper with notices on them which are
pasted around and above the doors. The
following notices are specimens of some of
the favorites Better be upright with
poverty than depraved with abundance.
"Better not be than be nothing. "The
happy hearted man carries JOY for all the
household. Here and there one secs blue
papers among the red ones which denote
that during the past year there has been a
death in the house.
The streets are thronged by a goreeously
dressed crowd, most of them attired in
brightly colored silks and satins; for the
rich don their best, aud even the very
poor, who are in miserable rags all the rest
of the year, generally contrive to hire or to
take out of pawn fine clothes for this ee-
casion. If it is quite impossible for them
to do this. they remain hidden away in
their homes
The fashion of paying New Year calls,
now dying out with US, is still in vogue in
China, where it probably had its origin, but
theEe it is men who receive as well as who
pay the visits, Chinese women taking no
part whatever in social life. Every China
man, except among the very lowest classes,
expects to receive visits from his interiors,
aud to pay them to those who are above
him in station. Pupils must call on their
teachers, married sons on their fathers,
poor relations on the rich and powerful
members of the family, etc. In some eases
sehuiuS ae='ru Is oeehheu suihcleht- iheSc
cards consist of thin strips of scarlet paper
with the name of the sender written on
them in black characters. Sometimes good
wishes are added.
People meeting in the streets salute each
other by crying "Kung-h Kung-hir'
Il humbly wish you joy,9 or "sin-hi =
May JOY be yours, so that it seems posi-
bic that our custom Of sayin Happy New
Year" as well as that Of paying New Year
visits may come to us from the Chinese.
During the discussioa Of the United
States Banking bill in Congress, some time