My best message for the Spring Festival

( Chinaculture.org ) Updated: 2016-01-22 17:36

[Photo/People.cn]

By Searu, who won the third prize of the 2015 Just Share It contest.

On the Eve of the new year, I received dozens of greeting messages from colleagues, relatives and other friends. However, I was so busy on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala that I had no time to reply to each message in time with my old cellphone, since I was afraid that the typing of too many Chinese characters would cost me much time! So I had to find a short meaningful sentence for my message to please my friends!

I thought it over and over. '拜年!' is the first message that I sent that night! 拜 (bai): its left part is the Chinese character 手（shou）for 'hand'； its right part is 手 plus 一 （yi) for 'one'. The whole character 拜 shows that you put your two hands to form 'one' empty fist-like thing, that you wave to the person before you to show your respect to him or her!年 means 'year' or 'spring festival', it is said its shape looks like a strange beast but I could not imagine what it would be!

In one word, 拜年 is a gesture to show your best greetings to seniors or friends at Spring Festival!

But, I was not satisfied with such a result, since it is short and lacks a friendly atmosphere! How about '拜年了!" ----了(le) has no real meaning but helps to finish the sentence in a verbal way. But, sometime 了 is read as (liao) which means ‘end’！（ ‘End’ is not a lucky word for new year！）

“拜年乐！" yes, it is a good idea!乐(le）means ‘happiness’！why？ Its part 小 symbolizes a little child who stands still with his or her two arms stretching out；its other part looks like a widely opening mouth for smiling or laughing！

拜年乐！ “Wave both my hands to you, wish you great happiness for the new year!”

This was my best message that I had written in the past year!

What do you think about my innovation?