The Chinese Lunar year is a fantastic holiday that encompasses several traditions. First, let\u2019s talk about the calendar. Unlike the western calendar with fixed dates, the lunar calendar is based on the cycle of the moon and Earth’s course around the sun. Usually, New Year\u2019s falls sometime in January or February. For example, 2019\u2019s New Year was on February 5th, and for 2020, January 25th. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are twelve Chinese zodiacs\ntotal, all of which are animals. The zodiacs each have assigned years and run\nin a sequence. Every twelve years, the zodiacs are repeated. The zodiac for 2020\nis the mouse. What year were you born? Chinese tradition believes a certain year\nis your luckiest year if the animal of that given year is the same as the year\nwhen you were born. When you are 12, 24, 36, 48, etc. years old, your family\nwill also host big birthday celebrations for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To celebrate the New Year, people\ncan get anywhere from seven days up to a month off from school or work. The biggest\ncelebration starts the day before Lunar January 1st. That afternoon, families\nwill start putting up new Spring Festival couplets on their door. These\ncouplets are red pieces of paper that have Chinese blessings either written in\nblack or gold. Families will also hang other red color decorations around their\nhome. Chinese love the color red. It symbolizes good luck, which is the perfect\nnew year theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similar to Western culture, many\npeople stay awake until midnight to witness the new year with family and watch fireworks.\nIt is believed that the loud sounds of firecrackers drive away evil and welcome\nthe new year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the first day of the New Year,\nmy family usually visits our father\u2019s side of family. We have huge meals and\none main dish, which are dumplings. My family used to put a coin in one of the\ndumplings to see who would be the luckiest person in the coming year. Young\ngenerations who are still in school will receive red envelops from the older\ngenerations for good luck and blessings. There is usually money in the\nenvelopes. It is customary to receive the red envelopes with two hands to show\nthe respect to the elder. You can say \u201cGong xi fa cai\u201d (\u606d\u559c\u53d1\u8d22), which\nmeans \u201cmay you attain greater wealth\u201d to show your appreciation and to share\nthe good luck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the second day, we usually visit\nour mother\u2019s side of family. Then, visit other relatives during the following\ndays. For some families, since everyone has different schedules, the Lunar New Year\nis the only time families may see each other. It is truly a time for family\ngathering and tons of fun.\n\nI wish you a Happy Chinese Lunar New Year! \u201cXin nian kuai le!\u201d (\u65b0\u5e74\u5feb\u4e50\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chinese Lunar year is a fantastic holiday that encompasses several traditions. First, let\u2019s talk about the calendar. Unlike the western calendar with fixed dates, the lunar calendar is based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","clearfix"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/chinese-new-year_1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":540,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions\/540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mcm.edu\/herald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}