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Chinese New Year (春节, 农历新年 or 过年), also known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, is celebrated on the second new moon after the winter solstice. Celebrated internationally, Chinese New Year is the most important holiday of the Chinese people and much of East Asia by Koreans, Vietnamese and others who also have the same new year.
Around the New Year people greet each other with:
New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair. The families get together during this holiday. The New Year's Eve dinner is very large and traditionally includes chicken. However, the New Year's Day dinner is typically vegetarian.
The date is determined by the Chinese calendar, a lunisolar calendar. The same calendar is used in countries that have adopted the Confucian and Buddhism tradition and in many cultures influenced by the Chinese, notably the Koreans, the Tibetans, the Vietnamese and the pagan Bulgars. Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. According to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.
Some Chinese New Year dates (in the Gregorian calendar) are listed below (with pinyin
romanization for the animals):
Animal
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See Chinese zodiac for a list of Chinese New Year dates over the last century.
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In Chinese mythology, several legends are related to the Chinese new year. Examples include:
Mythology
See also