Chinese New Year
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Kung Hei Fat Choy" redirects here. For the film, see Kung Hei Fat Choy (film).
For other traditions of celebrating lunar new year, see Lunar New Year (disambiguation).
| Chinese New Year | |
|---|---|
| Also called | Lunar New Year, Spring Festival. |
| Observed by | Chinese communities worldwide[1] |
| Type | Cultural, Religious (Chinese folk religion, Buddhist,Taoist, Confucian) |
| Significance | The first day of the Chinese calendar (lunisolar calendar) |
| Celebrations | Lion dances, fireworks, family gathering, family meal, visiting friends and relatives (拜年, bàinián), giving red envelopes, decorating with duilian (對聯, duìlián). |
| Date | Chinese lunar new year |
| 2013 date | Sunday, February 10, Snake |
| 2014 date | Friday, January 31, Horse |
| 2015 date | Thursday, February 19, Goat |
| 2016 date | Monday, February 8, Monkey |
| Frequency | annual |
| 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 | |||
| Simplified Chinese | 农历新年 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 農曆新年 | ||
| Literal meaning | Agricultural / Agrarian Calendar's New Year | ||
| |||
| Spring Festival | |||
| Simplified Chinese | 春节 | ||
| Traditional Chinese | 春節 | ||
| Literal meaning | Spring Festival | ||
| |||
Chinese New Year is an important traditional Chinese holiday celebrated at the turn of the Chinese calendar. In China, it is also known as theSpring Festival, the literal translation of the modern Chinese name. Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally run from Chinese New Year's Eve, the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, making the festival the longest in the Chinese calendar. Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "Lunar New Year".
The source of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Traditionally, the festival was a time to honor deities as well as ancestors.[2] Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, including Mainland China, Hong Kong,[3] Macau, Taiwan, Singapore,[4] Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius,[5] Philippines,[6][7] and also inChinatowns 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. Often, the evening preceding Chinese New Year's Day is an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. 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 color paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity." Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes.
Although the Chinese calendar traditionally does not use continuously numbered years, outside China its years are often numbered from the reign of the 3rd millennium BC Yellow Emperor. But at least three different years numbered 1 are now used by various scholars, making the year beginning AD 2014 the "Chinese Year" 4712, 4711, or 4651.[8]
