2008 Olympic Games Part Of Chinese New Year Celebrations

The Lunar New Year Festival, which began Wednesday, has a twist this year. Xinhua reports that setting off firecrackers, visiting relatives and friends with presents, or watching the annual television show on New Years Eve, are part of the traditional New Year celebrations, but this year, according to Xinhua, a popular New Year’s Eve show on CCTV, which has become one of most important rituals for many Chinese and has an audience rating of more than 90 per cent, included a tale about an elderly couple competing to be Olympic torchbearers. They were portrayed as a bit cranky, but were also as hospitable and warm-hearted as other Olympic volunteers.

Setting off firecrackers is another New Year tradition but this year many companies producing firecrackers featured products with Olympic-related themes, including one company that offered a package that held five kinds of crackers symbolizing both the five Olympic rings and the five ring roads that encircle Beijing.

Another tradition is posting Spring Festival scrolls on both sides of doors and this year the contents of many scrolls were Olympic-themed.

People give presents to each other and Xinhua reports the Olympic mascot Fuwa was popular in Beijing. One approved Beijing outlet for mascot sales said they sold about 10,000 yuan worth of Fuwa per day since the middle of January but before they had only about 2,000 yuan in daily sales.

Of the 20 temple fairs being held in Beijing, half will have Olympic themes. And for the seven-day Spring Festival holiday Olympic volunteers in Beijing set up about 100 kiosks at top restaurants, hotels and tourist sites for visitors from all over the country and overseas.