The Chinese New Year celebration and holiday is coming up soon.
This is a perfect opportunity to travel, with family or friends, and indulge in food, relaxation and just time together in a private setting of a Villa in Bali.
The background and history of the Chinese Calendar and the Chinese New Year Celebration.
The Chinese calendar was a complex timepiece. Yin and yang, the opposing but complementary principles that make up a harmonious world, ruled the calendar, as did the Chinese zodiac, the cycle of twelve stations or “signs” along the apparent path of the sun through the cosmos. Each new year was marked by the characteristics of one of the 12 zodiacal animals: the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival as it’s been called since the 20th century, remains the most important social and economic holiday in China. Originally tied to the lunar-solar Chinese calendar, the holiday was a time to honor household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors. It was also a time to bring family together for feasting
Traditionally for the Chinese, New Year was the most important festival on the calendar. The entire attention of the household was fixed on the celebration. During this time, business life came nearly to a stop. Home and family were the principal focuses. In preparation for the holiday, homes were cleaned to rid them of “huiqi,” or inauspicious breaths, which might have collected during the old year. Cleaning was also meant to appease the gods who would be coming down from heaven to make inspections.
Ritual sacrifices of food and paper icons were offered to gods and ancestors. People posted scrolls printed with lucky messages on household gates and set off firecrackers to frighten evil spirits. Elders gave out money to children. In fact, many of the rites carried out during this period were meant to bring good luck to the household and long life to the family–particularly to the parents.
Most important was the feasting. On New Year’s Eve, the extended family would join around the table for a meal that included as the last course a fish that was symbolic of abundance and therefore not meant to be eaten. In the first five days of the New Year, people ate long noodles to symbolize long life. On the 15th and final day of the New Year, round dumplings shaped like the full moon were shared as a sign of the family unit and of perfection.
With the adoption in China of the Western calendar in 1912, the Chinese joined in celebrating January 1 as New Year’s Day. China, however, continues to celebrate the traditional Chinese New Year, although in a shorter version with a new name–the Spring Festival. Significantly, younger generations of Chinese now observe the holiday in a very different manner from their ancestors. For some young people, the holiday has evolved from an opportunity to renew family ties to a chance for relaxation from work.
Chinese New Year Holiday at Villa Bloom
It is this combination that villa Bloom offers: the opportunity to renew family ties and relaxation for work. Families or groups of friends come to Villa Bloom to enjoy The Chinese New Year holiday. “Feasting” is definitely part of the program, as the staff of the villa provides full service. This included a private chef that prepares any kind of food, and even BBQs in the garden while guests enjoy a glass glazing over the Bali sea and watching the sun go down.
Villa Bloom is well suited for families or groups of friends with plentiful facilities and a professional team of staff including a private chef and villa manager, villa attendants, gardeners, security, and a car and driver on request. Set among 3525 square meters of tropical garden, and surrounded by traditional Balinese rice paddies, a jungle valley and always present sea view, Villa Bloom Bali is the ideal place for families and friends to take some time to relax, unwind and reconnect.
