From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinese
New Year
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Also called
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Lunar New Year, Spring Festival
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Observed by
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Type
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Significance
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2011 date
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February 3
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2012 date
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January 23
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2013 date
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February 10
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Celebrations
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Dragon dances/Lion dances, fireworks, family gathering, family meal, visiting friends and
relatives (拜年),
giving red envelopes, decorating with duilian (對聯).
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Related to
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Lantern Festival, which concludes the celebration of the New Year.
Mongol New Year (Tsagaan Sar), Tibetan New Year (Losar), Japanese New Year (Shōgatsu), Korean New Year (Seollal), Vietnamese New Year (Tết)
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Chinese
New Year
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Literal meaning
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Agrarian Calendar New Year
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Spring
Festival
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This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other
symbols instead of Chinese characters.
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Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese
holidays. In China,
it is known as "Spring Festival," the literal translation of
the Chinese name 春節 (Pinyin:
Chūn Jié), since the spring season in Chinese calendar starts with lichun,
the first solar term
in a Chinese calendar year. It marks the end of the winter season, analogous to
the Western carnival. The festival begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月;
pinyin: Zhēng Yuè) in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends
with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. Chinese New Year's Eve, a day where Chinese
families gather for their annual reunion dinner,
is known as Chú Xī (除夕) or "Eve of the Passing Year." Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "Lunar
New Year".
Chinese New Year is the longest and
most important festivity in the Chinese calendar. The origin of Chinese New
Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths
and traditions. Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories
with significant Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong,[2] Indonesia,
Macau, Malaysia,
Philippines, Singapore,[3] Taiwan,
Thailand, 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. These include Koreans
(Seollal), Bhutanese (Losar),
and Vietnamese cultures.
Within China, regional customs and
traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely.
People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food,
and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the
house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming
luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets
with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity". On the Eve of
Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items
as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night
with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by
wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper
envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is to reconcile, forget all grudges
and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.
Although the Chinese
calendar traditionally does not use continuously numbered years, outside China
its years are often numbered from the reign of the Yellow Emperor. But at least three different years numbered
1 are now used by various scholars, making the year beginning in 2012 AD the
"Chinese Year" 4710, 4709, or 4649.
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