Chinese New Year
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other traditions of celebrating lunar new year, see Lunar New Year.
Chinese New Year
Also called
Lunar New Year, Spring Festival
Observed by
Chinese communities worldwide[1]
Type
Cultural, Religious
(Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian)
Significance
The first day of the Chinese calendar (lunisolar calendar)
2012 date
January 23
2013 date
February 10
Celebrations
Dragon dances/Lion dances, fireworks, family gathering,
family meal, visiting friends and relatives (拜年,
bàinián), giving red envelopes, decorating
with duilian(對聯, duìlián).
Related to
Lantern Festival, which concludes the celebration of the
New Year.
Mongol New Year (Tsagaan Sar), Tibetan New Year
(Losar),Japanese New Year (Shōgatsu),Korean New
Year (Seollal), Vietnamese New Year (Tết)
Chinese New Year
Traditional Chinese
農曆新年
Simplified Chinese
农历新年
Literal meaning
Agrarian Calendar New Year
[show]Transcriptions
Spring Festival
Traditional Chinese
春節
Simplified Chinese
春节
[show]Transcriptions
This article
contains Chinesetext. Without
proper rendering support, you
may see question marks,
boxes, or other symbolsinstead
of Chinese characters.
Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as "Spring
Festival," the literal translation of the Chinese name 春節 (Pinyin: Chūnjié), since the spring season in Chinese
calendar starts with lichun, the first solar termin a Chinese calendar year. It marks the end of the winter season,
analogous to the WesternCarnival. The festival begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正
月; pinyin:Zhēngyuè) in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th
day. Chinese New Year's Eve, a day where Chinese families gather for their annualreunion dinner, is known
as Chúxī (除夕) or "Eve of the Passing Year." Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New
Year is often referred to as the "Lunar New Year".
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese calendar. The origin of Chinese
New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Chinese New
Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, such as Mainland
China, Hong
Kong[2], Macau, Taiwan,Singapore[3], Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius[4], Philippines[5][6], Vietnam, and
also in Chinatowns elsewhere. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had
influence on the lunar new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors.
Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely.
People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also traditional
for every family to thoroughly cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for
good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular
themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity". On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is
a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will
end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a
healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is to
reconcile, forget all grudges and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.
Although the Chinese calendar traditionally does not use continuously numbered years, outside China its years
are often numbered from the reign of the Yellow Emperor. But at least three different years numbered 1 are
now used by various scholars, making the year beginning in AD 2012 the "Chinese Year" 4710, 4709, or
4649.[7]