There was a great bash featuring TV stars, political big wigs and hundreds of dancers. For the first time ever, this year’s official show included a competition as well, according to “The Wall Street Journal.”

 

The 15-day celebration is expected to bring growth, strength and stability, according to the Chinese horoscope. It is a period of great feast, with family and friends getting together to wish each other a happy, prosperous new year by lighting incense sticks and setting off fireworks.

 

In Chinese culture, red is the most favorable color because people associate it with prosperity and joy. The Chinese people decorate their houses in red and gold for fortune and they also hang all sorts of red banners with their hopes and wishes for the New Year.

Cleaning the house is also a symbolic tradition, to sweep away the bad luck of the past year. But the Chinese do not throw out their trash until later in the holiday.

 

Other activities at the New Year celebration included crafts, live music, telling stories to younger children, ancient traditional Chinese lion dances and presentations on subjects like "How to use chop sticks." Springfield artist Hing Wah Hatch will write children's names in Chinese calligraphy.

The Ox is considered to be the second of the 12 animal signs on the Chinese horoscope therefore people born in Ox years are thought to be modest, with a strong work ethic and patience.

 

The holiday came during a more somber economic period for China as well as for the rest of the world due to the global economic slowdown. Fortune tellers have warned that 2009 will not be a good year for people born in Ox years, such as the new U.S. president Barack Obama.