Hundreds of millions of people gathered in various parts of the world on Wednesday (29) to mark the beginning of the new year of the Chinese lunar calendar, celebrating the Year of the Snake with parties, dances, fireworks shows, and traditional festivals.FACTS
- The first new moon of the lunar calendar officially inaugurated the Year of the Snake, which symbolizes good luck, rebirth, and royalty.
- There are 12 zodiac animals in Chinese astrology.
- People born in the year of the snake are said to be resilient and courageous, with strong interpersonal skills and leadership qualities, and the snake is considered the most tenacious of the 12 zodiac animals, with some believing that people born in these years are sinister and intimidating.
- Forecast: This year may bring “significant conflicts and shocks” and “the overall atmosphere in the world will become a little more chaotic,” warned Thierry Chow, a feng shui consultant from Hong Kong, in an interview with CNN.
What is Lunar New Year?
Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year, celebrates the beginning of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. The first day of the Chinese New Year is marked by the first new moon that appears between January 21 and February 20 and is characterized by a series of customs and traditions.
How is Chinese New Year celebrated?
Chinese homes are thoroughly cleaned before the official start of the holiday to rid the house of the bad luck from the previous year and to usher in good luck for the coming year. Red, the color of joy and good luck in Chinese culture, begins to appear on freshly painted doors, in decorations, and in lanterns hung throughout the country. Formal celebrations typically begin with a family gathering and dinner on the eve of the new year, and New Year’s Day is marked by large gatherings of family and friends who exchange oranges, gifts, and red envelopes of money to mark the occasion. Public celebrations include festivals with dances, fireworks shows, prayers for prosperity, and banquets featuring traditional foods such as sweet and sour pork, shrimp, dumplings, spring rolls, tangerines, and whole fish. The fifteenth day of the new year is when the Lantern Festival takes place.
Who celebrates Lunar New Year?
The occasion is one of the largest and most popular in Chinese culture and is also celebrated in Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore, among other countries.
What are the Chinese zodiac animals?
The twelve Chinese zodiac animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. The cycle repeats in the same order every 12 years, and each animal is celebrated for its unique characteristics and reputed attributes. The dragon, for example, which was celebrated in 2024, represents power, strength, good luck, and wisdom. The previous years of the snake were 2013, 2001, and 1989.
Surprising fact
Lunar New Year is responsible for the largest annual migration in the world as hundreds of millions of people travel from major cities to their hometowns for the celebrations.
9 billion. That is the number of trips people in China are expected to make between January 28 and February 4 to celebrate Lunar New Year, with over 510 million train trips and 90 million people traveling by plane, according to Voice of America. Authorities in China have extended the annual holiday by an extra day this year in hopes that travel and celebrations will help boost the economy.
Source: Forbes