春节 the Spring Festival

　　过春节 celebrate the Spring Festival

　　春节起源

　　The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Begining of Spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coordination with the changes of Nature). Its origin is too old to be traced. Several explanations are hanging around. All agree, however, that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese solely means "year", was originally the name of a monster.

　　辞旧岁 bid farewell to the old year

　　扫房 spring cleaning; general house-cleaning

　　10个春节相关习俗

　　01. 红包

　　Red Envelope (with money inside)

　　"红包"翻译为red envelope较为恰当。如果怕老外不太明白，可以加上with money inside，翻译为red envelope with money inside就可以了。现在微信上流行抢红包，可以翻译为snatch red envelopes，其中snatch是"抢"，Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary对snatch的解释是to take hold of something suddenly and roughly，suddenly和roughly很能体现在微信群中抢红包的那种奋不顾身和喜悦。

　　【例】I got some red envelopes. I've been watching a Chinese New Year special (on a Chinese programme) and I'm having noodles for breakfast!

　　02. 春晚

　　Spring Festival Gala/New Year Gala

　　其中，gala是"综艺演出"的意思。把春晚说成是一个party是不准确的，gala是很好的翻译。和春节相关的东西，可以用Spring Festival作定语，也可以用New Year(大写)作定语，但有些外国人不知道什么是Spring Festival，这个要注意一下。

　　03. 年夜饭

　　New Year's Eve dinner

　　用dinner肯定没错，但也可用banquet和feast来替换dinner，它们都是"盛宴"的意思，更能体现年夜饭的高大上~。

　　04. 包饺子

　　make dumplings

　　顺便说一下，有些地区包饺子的时候还会放硬币，据说咬到的人就会交好运，这种饺子就可以说成dumplings with lucky coins inside，可以和上面的red envelope with money inside一起记。

　　【例】There's traditional food too - noodle soup is supposed to bring luck, and people make dumplings with lucky coins inside.