Are you excited for the Lunar New Year? The Lunar New Year? I thought we just had a new year. Wasn’t it on January 1st? That’s the SOLAR new year. But the LUNAR New Year is based on the phases of the moon! In China, the first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between January 21st and February 20th. Whoah! So are you telling me that in China people celebrate a different new year? That’s right! It’s all about the MOON. In China, each lunar cycle has 60 years, and 12 years is regarded as a small cycle. Each of the 12 years is defined by an animal sign: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. 2019 is the Year of the Pig. Sounds like animals are pretty important! They sure are! And we often call it Chinese New Year, but many places, including Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore and many other Asian countries celebrate the Lunar New Year as national holidays. Holidays? Wait. Is this celebration more than one day? Yep! The Lunar New Year lasts 15 days.
Wow! That’s a long celebration! It sure is. It’s the longest national public holiday. People often take 7-12 days off work and children get a whole month off school! A whole month off?! I want to go to school in China. I also want to celebrate Lunar New Year, it sounds so fun! It sure is! There are many fun things people do to ring in the Chinese New Year. Everyone wears new clothes, decorates their home and town with red lanterns and signs, sets off fireworks, and eat yummy food like dumplings. Oh! The children also get red envelopes from their elders filled with money! Money!? Fireworks!? Gah! I wanna live in China! Why do they do all these super fun things? Well in Chinese folklore, there’s a monster or evil spirit called “Nian”. A monster called “Nian”. Yikes! Every Lunar New Year, Nian would come into town to eat humans and their livestock.
Ah no! That’s so scary! But Nian is afraid of the color red and fireworks. Oh! So that’s why everyone decorates their homes and town with red and shoots off fireworks. It’s to keep mean Nian away! I like that tradition. The color red in China is very special too. The color red symbolizes happiness, wealth and prosperity. So while keeping the evil Spirit Nian away it is also wishing a happy new year of good fortune! Double whammy! I like that. Yeah, it’s why the kids get red envelopes with money inside. That’s so cool. I wish someone would give me a red envelope filled with money.
Pretty neat, huh? Yeah. So Moon, 15 days is such a long day for a holiday. Do people celebrating do the same things everyday? Actually most days during the Chinese New Year represent something different. Well let’s start with before the Lunar New Year. There’s a lot to do to prepare for such a big holiday. There’s a lot of cleaning. People clean their homes, sweep, wash all their clothes and take a nice bath and it ius all very important. Cleaning is believed to wash away all bad dirt and illness. You don’t want to start the new year dirty do you? On the first day of the Lunar New Year, sweeping is not allowed. It’s believed to be bad luck - to sweep on the first day of the Lunar New Year is like sweeping away potential good luck! So you won’t see me sweeping! In fact I’ll never sweep to ensure good luck all the time.
Anyways, I think you’ll like Lunar New Year’s Eve. I mean, if there’s no cleaning, then yes! Lunar New Year’s Eve is an important day to be with family. No matter where people are in the world, they do their best to be with family. It’s like how people travel to be with their family on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It is great to get together and when they’re all together, they have a big reunion dinner consisting of dumplings and a new year’s cake. After dinner, they all gather round the TV to watch CCTV New Year’s Gala. It is the most watched TV program. It’s a variety show with lots of different performances that all generations can enjoy. Wow! Then at midnight, families set off fireworks to ward off evil spirits and celebrate the coming of the new year! That’s just like the Solar New Year! Yeah! The first Lunar New Year day is similar to the solar new year day.
Most people stay home or go shopping. Yep, that sounds like the Solar New Year. What happens on the second day? The second day is “Welcoming Son-In-Laws”. Families will visit the parents of the wife’s side of the family. They will have dinner together and the children get red envelopes. We all want those red envelopes! Day 3 is kind of like Day 1. People stay home and relax with family. That sounds nice. Day 4 is “Welcoming the Gods”. People light candles or incense to welcome good spirits. Neat! On the 5th day, people throw a big banquet to celebrate the God of Fortune’s birthday and they have a party. Then on the 6th day people drive away the Ghost of Poverty by throwing out ragged clothes and rubbish. More cleaning haha.
It’s tradition. And the 7th day is the day of mankind. It is the day believed that the mother goddess created humans. It is also the day everyone gets a year older. A year older, so like a birthday? Day 7 is like a national birthday but everyone also has their own special day of when they were actually born. Your own birthday is when you get a year older and the national birthday is more symbolic.
Day 8 is the birthday for millet. The crop millet has birthday?! That’s right. Millet is a very important crop for China so why not bring in the new year wishing for a bountiful year for crops? It’s believed that if this day is bright and sunny, that means it will be a good year for crops.
And guess what Day 9 is? Another birthday?! Yep! Day 9 is the birthday celebration of Jade Emperor, the Supreme Deity of Taoism.
Big ceremonies are held at Taoist temples. Wow! There’s so many birthday parties to attend! You betcha. Now Days 10-14 is a little more relaxed. People still enjoy the holiday with food and time with family, but there’s no specific events to attend or things to do. Except for prep for Day 15 - The Lantern Festival. The Lantern Festival!? The Lantern Festival marks the end of the Lunar New Year. Families walk the town with lit red lanterns. Some lanterns are released with poems and riddles in them. If you catch a lantern with a riddle and solve it, the person who wrote the riddle may give you a prize.
So what do you think? Isn’t the Lunar New Year awesome? I want to go to China for the Lunar New Year! I want to eat yummy dumplings and get lots and lots of red envelopes! Happy Chinese New Year!
As found on Youtube
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