Xin Nián Kuài Lè! Today begins the most important holiday in China — the Lunar New Year. Also known as Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, this fifteen-day festival is a special time when families come together to celebrate the coming year ahead, have parades, honor ancestors, and, of course…eat delicious food! This year, we say goodbye to the year of the snake and welcome the year of the horse. Read more.
The Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year, begins on January 31st this year and welcomes in the Year of the Horse.
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. Read more.
