Wishing all of you a Happy Chinese New Year on the 29th of January 2025!! It is the year of the wood snake.
Chinese New Year, or Lunar New year, is also known as the Spring festival – it marks the beginning of spring on the lunar calendar and welcomes the year of the snake.
Chinese New Year is one of the most important celebrations in China and for the Chinese communities around the world for the next 15 days, beginning from 28th January 2025, which is Chinese New Year’s Eve.
Every year, when I write about Chinese New Year, it is about family, family connections, and introducing your culture and traditions to your family, especially those migrants living overseas.
For this blog post, however, I thought I’d write about something different…
Why do you think Chinese New Year falls on a different date every year?
This is because the date for Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, where the first day of the month begins during the new moon or monthly cycle of the moon’s phases, and the new moon marks the first day of the month.
In another words, the lunar calendar counts the length of time it takes for the moon to go round the earth as one month, whereas the Gregorian calendar (which is the one we are using) counts the time it takes for the earth to go around the sun as one year. Hence, the lunar calendar will have different number of days every year compared with the Gregorian calendar.
That’s the reason Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, being between January 21st and February 20th on the Gregorian Calendar.
Chinese Zodiacs
The Chinese Zodiac is a twelve-year cycle that assigns twelve animals to each year in the order of rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Each year, the cycle is represented by an animal, and this year it is the year of the snake.
The Chinese zodiac is part of Chinese culture. It is also believed the zodiac influences the person’s personality, career, marriages, fortunes etc. For example, some believe that certain animals get along better than others. Also, parents may choose a specific year to have babies based on the belief that certain animals (such as the dragon) can bring prosperity to the families.
You can Google search which year you were born and which zodiac you belong to just for the fun of it. New year is also a time where people will check their Chinese Horoscope to plan their fortune and career prospects for the new year.
How do we celebrate the Chinese New Year?
Here are few things that happen on the first day of Chinese New Year:
We wear new RED clothes
Growing up, we always will have a new set of clothing to welcome the new year. New clothing represents a new fresh start to the year. Also, members of the family are encouraged to wear red clothing. Red is an auspicious colour. It represents luck, prosperity and happiness.
New Year Greetings to the family
Early in the morning, the first thing we do is to spread the new year cheers and well wishes to our family. Normal new year wishes are “wishing you good health” – commonly for older people who have been unwell, “happy new year”, “good luck and prosperity”, “happiness and prosperity”, and “may everything you wish come true” etc.
The older generation will wish the younger generation “prosperity and wealth”, “may you do well in your endeavours”, “happy and healthy”, “may your business prosper”, and “may you do well in your studies” etc.
This is the true highlight! Younger generations will be eyeing for this ultimate “prize” – the red packets.
Red packets are nicely designed red narrow envelopes filled with money. The red packets represent good luck and prosperity, and they are normally given by married adults to the younger generation to wish them good luck and prosperity for the new year.
The amount given varies, as it depends on the relationship between them and the recipient. Growing up, this is the ultimate pocket / spending money for our entire year!
Paying respects to the senior members of the family
Respect and support of the elderly family members are considered the foremost responsibility of the immediate family. Thus, after breakfast, after our new year greetings and gifting red packets within the family, now it is time to pay our respects to the elderly relatives to exchange new year greetings, to bless the elderly relative’s health and energy, and to give them gifts (mostly red packets) for the new year.
Most times we were blessed in return with amazing Chinese New Year treats that we can only enjoy once a year and only during Chinese New Year.
Family gatherings
After all the greetings and well wishes and visiting the elderly relatives, it is time for some precious family gatherings and sharing food. This is a time where family members from afar will gather at a relatives’ place to enjoy the time together, catching up, sharing news, and most of all, eating!
May you have a wonderful time celebrating with your family and friends and wishing you a Happy New Year!
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