Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is a major celebration in many Asian countries and their diasporas around the world.
The Chinese New Year, also called the Printemps Festival, is about a two -week celebration marking on the first day of the Chinese calendar year, which is launching on Wednesday this year.
Each Chinese New Year is around a 12 -year cycle and is associated with an animal in the Chinese zodiac, which is then associated with one of the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth.
This new year marks the year of the wooden snake.
While its origins are in China and Chinese communities in countries like Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore celebrate under the same name and with similar traditions, others, as in Vietnam and in the Korean peninsula, have a whole name different for their new lunar festivals of year.
How is Chinese New Year celebrated?
The days preceding the new year spent carefully cleaning households to clean the space of all unlucky of the previous year.
This cleaning is supposed to welcome good luck for the coming year. The decorations also increase, including lanterns, paper cuttings and fresh paint – all in a bright red color, which also invites good luck.
The celebrations start with a family reunion dinner on the eve of the new year.
While the first day of the new year takes place, the houses fill up with family and friends who come to wear gifts, oranges and red envelopes with small sums of money, known as Ang Pao or Hongbao, for the little ones.
Greetings and wishes are exchanged, including the most common sentences in Chinese language Gong Xi fa Cai, and Xin Nian Kuai le, which result in roughly happiness, peace and prosperity for the days to come.
The beliefs vary with some refrain from sweeping away their houses or cutting their hair and nails in the first days for fear of losing good luck that has accumulated through the visits to new year sympathizers, according to Yvonne Goh, A Malaysian of Chinese origin.
The traditional lion dances are a central element of the celebrations while they invite good luck and dispute the evil spirits of houses, businesses and workplaces.
Traditionally, married women had to spend the first day of the Chinese New Year with their parents-in-law while the second day was reserved for girls to visit their parents.
The third day should be quieter and rest is priority, while the fourth and fifth days are dedicated to the God of wealth. The sixth day of celebrations would see people getting rid of old or unwanted goods and regaining work.
On the seventh day, the mother goddess of China Nuwa would have created humans.
The Koreans celebrate “Seollal”, the Vietnamese brand “Tet”
The Korean New Year (Seollal) and the Vietnamese New Year (TET) are also celebrated, in their own way.
The Korean New Year is celebrated over a three -day period, when celebrations are traditionally focused on family gatherings, food and traditional Korean rituals. For the South and the North Koreans, it will be the year of the green snake, supposed to lead to transformation, growth and development.
Some of the most crucial aspects of the Korean festivities include The Sebae, a deep respect made by the young generations to their elders as a means of wishing them a good year.
As a rule, the Sebae are performed while wearing traditional clothes called the Hanbok. In return, the elders present young people with species tokens in envelopes called sebaetdon.
The worship of the ancestors, known as Charye, is also an important part of the new year. Food is presented on a table as offering to the ancestors, and deep arcs are made as a sign of respect.
A rice cake soup known as Tteokguk is also served alongside other dishes such as Korean dumplings. However, Tteokguk occupies a special place on the dining table because it is served once a year due to the beliefs that consumption would make one more year.
The celebration of the Vietnamese New Year of TET, abbreviated for Tet Nguyen Dan, which means “Festival of the first day”, is celebrated over three days as opposed to the 15 traditional Chinese New Year.
TET is one of the most important holidays in Vietnam, where offices and businesses close for seven to nine days during the holidays.
The Vietnamese also gives priority to spend time with the family, pay tribute to the ancestors, pray to gods and rest before the start of a new year.
Before the TET, the Vietnamese observe NGO Cong, on the day of the god of cooking, a deity believed to govern family affairs. That day, the family altars in the ancestors are cleaned, the new offers are extinguished and the incense is burned.
The packaging of the Chung cake, also called the TET cake, the cleaning and decoration of houses with kumquats, fishing flowers and apricot flowers are also an integral part of the preparations.
And the day before the TET, families are preparing five fruit trays that are arranged at the altar for ancestors, while visits to the ancestors are made with offerings.
As a general rule, the first day of celebration is reserved on the father’s side of the family while the second day is for the maternal side.
Vietnamese culture also places teachers in high esteem, with the third day of the new year devoted to honor teachers.
The “losar” of Tibet and the “Tsagaan Sar” of Mongolia “
In Tibet and in certain parts of India with important Buddhist communities, Losar, which translates into the new year of the Tibetan lunisolar calendar, is celebrated around a period similar to that of the Chinese New Year.
However, the dates are slightly different, this year’s losar should be marked on February 28 and extending over a period of 15 days.
Losar is often observed through traditional and religious rituals carried out in monasteries and temples, cultural events and family ties on shared meals and gifts.
Mongolia will celebrate its new year, known as Tsagaan SAR on March 1, based on the Mongol lunisolar calendar.
However, preparations begin in advance, which include cleaning the house and food preparation. The family, the neighbors and the friends realize, the offers are dedicated to the deities and the real New Year Day is launched by walking in a specific direction based on the prescriptions of the zodiac.
