Page 257 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book
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A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 250
Its firmness and elasticity probably explain the very frequent use in novels of the term
‘nephrite stem’, meaning the penis.
New Year
xin-nian
The Chinese New Year lasts not for a day but for two weeks. It is a family feast: sons
come home from far-off places, and newly married daughters visit their parents.
It is the time of year when people are in contact with the world of the spirits via
the hearth-god, who goes aloft on the 24th day of the 12th month to report on what
he has witnessed during the past twelve months.
New Year picture designed to ward off evil spirits
The story goes that a certain hearth-god, thoroughly disgusted and fed-up with his
year, begged the Jade Emperor in heaven to annihilate the human race. Before anything
could be done, however, the other gods came to intercede for mankind; whereupon
the Jade Emperor told them to go to earth and see for themselves what went on there.
In the meantime, on earth, people had stopped working, tidied everything up and laid on
the festivities – and this was the beginning of the New Year Feast.
