CHINESE DRAGON PARADE NEW YORK CITY
TODAY, MANY NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL CHILDREN HAVE THE DAY OFF FOR THE FIRST TIME BECAUSE OF THE CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR.
HERE IS A DESCRIPTION OF THE CHINESE NEW YEAR FROM WIKIPEDIA:
Chinese New Year is an important Chinese festival celebrated at the turn of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. It is also known as the Spring Festival, the literal translation of the modern Chinese name. Celebrations traditionally run from the evening preceding the first day, to the Lantern Festivalon the 15th day of the first calendar month. The first day of the New Year falls on the new moon between 21 January and 20 February.[2] In 2016, the first day of Chinese New Year falls on Monday, February 8th.[3]
The New Year festival is centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Traditionally, the festival was a time to honour deitiesas well as ancestors.[4] Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, including Mainland China, Hong Kong,[5] Macau, Taiwan, Singapore,[6] Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius,[7] and the Philippines.[8][9] Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the lunar new year celebrations of its geographic neighbours.
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 coupletswith 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 BCE Yellow Emperor. But at least three different years numbered 1 are now used by various scholars, making the year beginning CE 2015 the "Chinese year" 4713, 4712, or 4652.[10]
| Also called | Lunar New Year, Spring Festival. |
|---|---|
| Observed by | Chinese communities worldwide[1] |
| Type | Cultural, religious (Chinese folk religion, Confucian) |
| Significance | The first fifteen days of the lunarChinese calendar (lunisolar calendar) |
| Celebrations | Lion dances, dragon dances, fireworks, family gathering, family meal, visiting friends and relatives (拜年, bàinián), giving red envelopes, decorating withduilian. |
| Date | Chinese lunar new year |
| 2015 date | Thursday, 19 February, Goat |
| 2016 date | Monday, 8 February, Monkey |
| 2017 date | Saturday, 28 January, Rooster |
| 2018 date | Friday, 16 February, Dog |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Related to | Lantern Festival, which concludes the celebration of the Chinese 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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Literal meaning | Agricultural / Agrarian Calendar's New Year | ||
| |||
| Spring Festival | |||
| Traditional Chinese | 春節 | ||
| Literal meaning | Spring Festival | ||
| |||
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