What is it?
Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival/Lunar New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays.
When is it celebrated?
The date varies. It is 15 days starting from the first day of the first lunar month (Zheng Yue) of the Chinese calendar.
The Chinese lunar calendar dates back to 2600 BC when Buddha summoned all the animals to visit him before he departed earth. Only 12 animals came and Buddha rewarded them by naming a year after each in the order they arrived. The pig or boar is 12th in the calendar. Legend says that each year bears the characteristics of the animal that it is named after and that people born in the same year also share those traits.
Red is considered a lucky colour at this time.
Symbolism
According to legend, in ancient China, Nian (“Nyan”), a man-eating beast from the mountains, could infiltrate houses silently to prey on humans. The people later learned that Nian was sensitive to loud noises and the color red, so they scared it away with explosions, fireworks and the liberal use of the color red. So “Guo Nian” actually means “Surviving the Nian”. These customs led to the first New Year celebrations. “ChuXi” in Mandarin Chinese. “Chu” means “get rid of” and “Xi” is the day of the legendary man-eating beast, Nian, that preys once a year on New Year Eve. When Nian arrived, people used firecrackers to scare him away. Once Nian ran away, people joined together to celebrate for another year of safe life.
Celebrated internationally in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese. Chinese New Year is considered to be a major holiday for the Chinese as well as ethnic groups who were strongly influenced by Chinese culture. This includes Japanese, Koreans, Miao (Chinese Hmong), Mongolians, Vietnamese, Tibetans, the Nepalese and the Bhutanese