The Spring Festival Far and away the most important holiday in China is the Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year. To the Chinese people it is as important as Christmas to people in the West. 中國(guó)最盛大的節(jié)日無疑就是春節(jié)，也就是中國(guó)年。春節(jié)對(duì)中國(guó)人來說就像圣誕節(jié)對(duì)西方人一樣重要。 The dates for this annual celebration are determined by the lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, so the timing of the holiday varies from late January to early February. To the ordinary Chinese, the festival actually begins on the eve of the lunar New Year’s Day and ends on the fifth day of the first month of the lunar calendar. But the 15th of the first month, which normally is called the Lantern Festival, means the official end of the Spring Festival in many parts of the country. 這個(gè)年度盛典（春節(jié)）的日期是由中國(guó)農(nóng)歷而不是公歷決定的，因此春節(jié)可能是1月底或2月初。對(duì)于普通中國(guó)人來說，春節(jié)真正開始于除夕而于正月十五結(jié)束。正月十五，也叫元宵節(jié)，在那一天我國(guó)大部分地區(qū)正式結(jié)束春節(jié)。 “Guo Nian,” which means “passing the year,” is the common term among the Chinese people for celebrating the Spring Festival. It actually means greeting the new year. On New Year’s Eve, all the members of families come together to feast. The tradition is to have different main courses every day from the 1st day of the New Year to the 15th day of the New Year, from Jiao Zi (dumplings), noodles, spring rolls, sticky rice cakes, and Tang Yuan (stuffed rice balls), which lead to a lot of advertisements about fitness right after the Chinese New Year holiday. “過年”，又叫“過年關(guān)”，是中國(guó)人慶賀春節(jié)時(shí)互相道賀的語(yǔ)言，意味著真正迎接新年。在除夕夜，家里所有人聚在一起吃大餐。傳統(tǒng)就是，從大年初一直到正月十五，每天都有不同的主菜：餃子、面條、春卷、年糕以及湯圓等等, 這導(dǎo)致節(jié)后就會(huì)出現(xiàn)很多減肥廣告。