A giant Chinese knot with emblem of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on Tian’anmen Square in Beijing
Many Chinese New Year customs have been widely observed for thousands of years. The family reunion dinner, pasting couplets and setting off fireworks are must-dos during Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival.
But for this upcoming Spring Festival, watching the Beijing Winter Olympics will also become an important activity in addition to the more traditional ones.
The 2022 Spring Festival – the year of the Tiger in the Chinese lunar calendar – falls on February 1, just three days before the Olympic Winter Games officially opens in Beijing.
Lou Xiaoqi, a cultural scholar and founder of Civilization Magazine, said that the Olympic Games and Spring Festival share cultural connotations in common, as they both celebrate togetherness and harmony.
Overseas guests at the 2022 Winter Olympics echoed the importance of unity.
“The Lunar New Year is a celebration of family reunions. The Olympic Games is about the international family coming together. So it just kind of shows that we have a lot more in common internationally than we think that we do,” said Oliver Walters, a cameraman for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
“It’s great for other cultures to come here and experience it and see how much we do have in common and as opposed to what we don’t think we have in common,” he added.
TIME-HONORED VALUES
Equal to Christmas in Western countries in terms of significance, the Spring Festival is the most crucial time of the year for family reunions in China. The precise origins of the Spring Festival are lost in the mists of time, but according to folklore, it has been celebrated for around 4,000 years.
Chen Haiming, director of the Center for Global Governance and Law, Xiamen University of Technology, said that the Spring Festival embodies the principle of “oneness of heaven and humanity,” representing the highest value of traditional Chinese culture and soul of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
“The concept of unity between humans and nature has profoundly influenced all aspects of Chinese social life, and even shaped the idea of ‘green development,’ which China lays particular emphasis on today,” he added.
More importantly, the Spring Festival represents the value of family reunions and the pursuit of harmonious family relationships.
The yearlong yearning for a family reunion during the Spring Festival is manifested in the travel rush. During the Spring Festival season — a 40-day period known as ‘Chunyun’ — hundreds of millions of Chinese people will be on the move, cramming into trains, buses, cars and planes to reach family and friends.
Decades ago, the Spring Festival had little impact outside of China. But as the country’s economy grew, the holiday, which has enormous cultural significance in the Chinese-speaking world, has become more prominent.
Similarly, the Olympic Games, full of passion and extraordinary feats of athletic endeavor, were the sporting, social and cultural highlight of the ancient Greek calendar for almost 12 centuries.
One of the most important traditions from the ancient Olympics was the Olympic Truce, a peace accord that allowed warring Greek city-states to set conflict aside, celebrate togetherness, and experience peace inspired by sport.
The modern Olympic Games was revived in the 19th century by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, who had read about the ancient Greek Olympics and believed the Olympic Games could contribute to world peace and international friendship.
As de Coubertin envisaged, the Olympic Games have evolved into humanity’s largest and most diverse gathering. Every two years, the world watches in awe as athletes from up to over 200 countries and regions unite in competition at the Olympic Games.
Though the Olympic Truce does not stop wars, it has a vital contribution to enhance understanding, lower tension, and resolve conflict, all for the benefit of humanity.
“The modern Olympic Games serves as a kind of practice for building a community with a shared future for mankind,” said Lou.
CELEBRATING TOGETHERNESS & HARMONY AT BEIJING 2022
In 2021, the Olympic motto was revised for the first time in over 120 years, with the word “together” being added. The new motto now reads “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together.”
“In today’s fragile world with so much uncertainty, the Olympic Games are more than ever a powerful symbol of hope, peace and solidarity for all of humanity in all our diversity,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach wrote in the foreword to the Olympic Manifesto scroll.
As the world continues to battle a relentless virus, and as anti-globalization and unilateralism pose severe challenges to the international community, the 2022 Winter Games could not have come at a better time – the world needs to unite together and celebrate humanity.
Given that this year’s Winter Olympics coincides with the Chinese Lunar New Year, the Festival’s traditional focus on harmony certainly takes on a more global significance.
“The world today is in dire need of inclusiveness, which the Chinese culture of harmony without uniformity celebrates,” said Chen.
“Given the values and spirit embedded in the Spring Festival, it is a festival to be celebrated not only by people in China but also those around the world,” he added.
A fitting tribute to this occasion is the third edition of the Olympic Manifesto scroll published by Civilization Magazine.
The 60-meter-long scroll mainly centers on the Spring Festival and Winter Olympics, showing the integration of diverse world cultures. It also encompasses the festival culture of 23 host countries and 43 host cities of previous Olympic Games.
“This signifies that the culture of the East and the West meet in Beijing and develop with mutual understanding,” explained Lou.
ANTICIPATION AND EXCITEMENT
As the Spring Festival approaches, decorations such as red lanterns and Chinese knots haven been hung up at the Main Media Center, hotels and the Athletes Villages to create a festive atmosphere.
“I’m honored to be in China for the lunar celebration. I’m looking forward to celebrating the New Year here in China,” Walters told Xinhua.
These sentiments were echoed by a number of media and supporting staff from overseas.
Big Air Shougang, which will undertake the big air events of snowboard and freestyle skiing, was the first competition venue that entered the closed-loop management mode.
Rafal Robert, a ski jumping platform technician from Poland, has stayed within the closed-loop for nearly a month, and thus can already experience the festivities on Xiao Nian, which literally means “Minor New Year” in Chinese and is considered to be the prologue of the Spring Festival.
“I’m very happy to receive a gourd-shaped souvenir from my Chinese colleagues. They told me that the gourd represents good fortune and wealth in Chinese culture. It’s very interesting,” said Robert.
Maja Hrvatin, who is working for TV Slovenia during the 2022 Winter Games, hopes some of the Spring Festival traditions can show a bright future for humanity.
“I know that you are not allowed to sweep the room on the New Year’s day, because you sweep away the joy and good luck,” she said.
“It’s a nice symbol. I really hope that all the people will come together despite all the obstacles, like everything going on with the virus, so in that way it’s nice symbolism.”
Gao Peng, Su Bin and Dong Yixing, Sports Writers Xinhua
