“Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái” Does Not Mean “Happy New Year”
Here in the U.S.A., many people have been regarding the expression for the Chinese lunar calendar Spring Festival , “Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái 恭喜发财” as their own expression of “ Happy New Year ”. That is mostly a misapprehension , even though “Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái” is a seasonal greeting during the festival.
If translated word for word , Gōng Xǐ means congratulations; Fā Cái means to get rich. Chinese people do use this expression during the Spring Festival just because people like to hear propitious words in such circumstances, and everybody would also like to pray for being prosperous in the coming year. “Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái ” not only means the congratulations for the financial success of the other side, but is also a kind of wish for good fortune. Customarily when exchanging this greeting, those elders would give one or more red envelopes with some money as gifts to those unmarried youngsters especially kids, which really makes a very happy festival atmosphere.
But the very direct expression for “Happy New Year” is “ Xīn Nián Hǎo 新年好! The verbatim translation is Xīn — new; Nián — year; Hǎo — good. Although there are various kinds of greetings, or different places have their own expressions , “ Xīn Nián Hǎo !” is the most acceptable and common used expression among all Chinese people. While “Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái 恭喜发财” should be one of those following greetings . If both these two expressions are used in this case, “ Xīn Nián Hǎo !” should always start first.