 Holiday:
Chinese New Year is an important traditional Chinese
holiday. In China, it is also known as the Spring Festival,
the literal translation of the modern Chinese name. Chinese
New Year celebrations traditionally ran 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. Chinese New Year is celebrated in
countries and territories with significant Chinese
populations, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau,
Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius,
Philippines, 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. 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 in 2013 AD the "Chinese Year" 4711, 4710, or 4650.
Source: Wikipedia: Chinese New Year |
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