The Chinese New Year
For the Chinese people and those of Chinese descent across the globe the most celebrated day of the year is the Lunar New Year or the Chinese New Year. Also called The Spring Festival, this most popular holiday period commences on the day of the first new moon of the New Year and ends on the full moon about two weeks later.
Tradition
Many traditions associated with The Lunar New Year include “getting one’s house in order” by paying off debts and physically cleaning the house as well as writing Spring Festival couplets on red paper and adorning windows with paper-cuts. As the color red symbolizes Fire and is thought to drive away bad luck, people celebrate by wearing red clothes during the holiday period. Gathering with friends and relatives, known as “bainian” include making New Year cakes and saying prayers in respect to the gods of the household, departed ancestry, and Heaven and Earth.
Children are given “red envelopes” with money in them as blessings.
Family
As family members reunite on the first night of the New Year themes of prosperity, good luck, and happiness are shared over a feast of specially prepared meals including Spring Rolls that symbolize wealth, noodles representing a long life, and Sticky Rice Cake that symbolize a rich, sweet life and family reunion. Lettuce wraps are commonly filled with “lucky food” during the two weeks of celebrating the new lunar year. Customarily, on New Year’s Eve fish is served whole, with the head and tail intact, symbolizing prosperity and abundance for the coming year. The Chinese New Year, The Spring Festival, The Lunar New Year are all used to mean the same thing for millions of Chinese people; a time to cherish, honor, make peace, and make merry with family and friends while ringing in the new year cycle with hope of prosperity and abundance for all.
Fireworks and Parades
Fireworks displays on New Year’s Eve light the night as family and friends come together to eat, pray, well-wish, and celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another. In ancient times the Chinese people would light bamboo stalks with the belief that the flames and crackling bamboo would frighten and ward off evil spirits.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month the Lantern Festival is held. Lanterns are hung in temples and carried at night to parades. Many people paint their lanterns with mythical and historical scenes or paint flowers, birds, zodiac signs, and animals on them. The Lantern Festival’s highlight is the Dragon Dance, where usually a very long dragon(sometimes 100 ft. long) made from silk, bamboo, and paper is carried through the streets by young men dancing inside of it.
The Chinese Lunar Calendar
Based on the cycles of the moon, The Chinese Lunar Calendar is a yearly one, and a lunisolar calendar(–that is, based on the seasons rather than indicating the position among the constellations of the full moon) but with the start of the year being based on the cycles of the moon. The start of the year begins anywhere between late January and the middle of February falling on the second new moon after the winter solstice.
Each year of the Chinese calendar’s twelve year cycle corresponds to a different animal.
Dating back to 2600BC, The Chinese Lunar Calendar is the longest chronological calendar in history. The emperor Huang Ti introduced the first yearly cycle. Myth has it that the Lord Buddha asked all of the animals to see him off just before he left this world, but as only twelve of the animals showed up, he decided to reward them each with their “own year”. The Chinese believe that the animal the corresponds to the year that one is born is “the animal that hides in your heart” and has a strong influence on ones life. Indeed, if you were born in the year of the Ox you may tend to naturally move on your feet in a relatively slow manner while having the benefit of a solid stance, IE; hard to knock down, whereas, if you were born in the year of the tiger you may tend to be relatively agile on your feet while having the benefit of quick reflexes. Find your animal year in the list below to take note of this ancient system of association regarding human traits and behavior and animal types.
The animals that showed up to bid Lord Buddha farewell came in this order:
Rat 1924 1936 1948 1960 1972 1984 1996 2008
Ox 1925 1937 1949 1961 1973 1985 1997 2009
Tiger 1926 1938 1950 1962 1974 1986 1998 2010
Rabbit 1927 1939 1951 1963 1975 1987 1999 2011
Dragon 1928 1940 1952 1964 1976 1988 2000 2012
Snake 1929 1941 1953 1965 1977 1989 2001 2013
Horse 1930 1942 1954 1966 1978 1990 2002 2014
Sheep 1931 1943 1955 1967 1979 1991 2003 2015
Monkey 1932 1944 1956 1968 1980 1992 2004 2016
Rooster 1933 1945 1957 1969 1981 1993 2005 2017
Dog 1934 1946 1958 1970 1982 1994 2006 2018
Boar 1935 1947 1959 1971 1983 1995 2007 2019