Lunar New Year traditions include the Dragon Dance and the distribution of red envelopes filled with money “I tell people who want to visit Asia, in general, avoid Chinese New Year because you won’t be able to get anywhere!” says Kho. (In 2020, CNN deemed Chunyun “the largest human migration on the planet.”) Ahead of that holiday comes a bustling travel period known as Chunyun, in which millions of people trek home by plane, train, and automobile to celebrate the new year with their extended families. There is a weeklong holiday in the People’s Republic of China during Spring Festival in 2023, the public holiday is January 21-27. But if you’re in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or anywhere else in most of the Chinese diaspora, they’re still calling it ‘new year.’” Spring Festival is a 7-day vacation in China Nowadays, Kho explains, “in mainland China, almost everybody refers to the new year as Spring Festival. During the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to the year Mao died in 1976, the traditional lion and dragon dances were also a point of contention, according to. “The term was coined before the Communists, but it was used extensively by the party to replace ‘the new year,’ because they tried to get rid of anything that’s old-all of the superstitions and religion, including the celebrations,” says Kian Lam Kho, chef and author of Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees: Essential Techniques of Authentic Chinese Cooking. That name was popularized after Communist Party leader Mao Zedong took power in China in 1949. “It’s kind of like that old Friends joke, ‘In China, they just call it ‘food’ in Chinese, it’s just the new year.” But in America, she says, where the holiday is mainly experienced in the Chinatowns of various cities, “we just made it ‘Chinese New Year.’” In Maasbach’s experience, while Lunar New Year is the more inclusive and accurate term as it applies to the holiday worldwide, celebrating is “not as popular with some of those immigrant groups in America.”Īs it’s also become popular with people of all nationalities who visit Chinatown to eat and watch the parade performances, Maasbach adds, “it’s sort of like our stake in the country, if you will, and that’s really a pride point.” Lunar New Year is also called Spring Festival “It’s been popularized because the largest segment of the Asian-American population in the United States is Chinese,” Maasbach explains. In the U.S., though, it’s most commonly associated with what’s often called Chinese New Year, the American version of China’s 15-day-long festivities. In Vietnam, Lunar New Year is known as Tết, and in Tibet it’s Losar. The Lunar New Year isn’t only observed in China it’s celebrated across several countries and other territories in Asia, including South Korea and Singapore. Lunar New Year isn’t exactly the same as Chinese New Year Here’s what to know about Lunar New Year traditions, and what more than 1.5 billion people do to celebrate it. Three overarching themes, she says, are “fortune, happiness, and health.” “It’s really a time for new beginnings, and family gathering,” says Nancy Yao Maasbach, president of New York City’s Museum of Chinese in America. In China, the 15-day celebration kicks off on New Year’s Eve with a family feast called a reunion dinner full of traditional Lunar New Year foods, and typically ends with the Lantern Festival. 11 Lunar New Year Foods and What They Mean.The 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals and Their Meaning.As The New York Times explains, “A solar year-the time it takes Earth to orbit the sun-lasts around 365 days, while a lunar year, or 12 full cycles of the Moon, is roughly 354 days.” As with the Jewish lunisolar calendar, “a month is still defined by the moon, but an extra month is added periodically to stay close to the solar year.” This is why the new year falls on a different day within that month-long window each year. It’s called the Lunar New Year because it marks the first new moon of the lunisolar calendars traditional to many east Asian countries including China, South Korea, and Vietnam, which are regulated by the cycles of the moon and sun. According to China Highlights, this sign represents “longevity, peace, and prosperity.” In terms of the Chinese zodiac animal, it’s the Year of the Rabbit. Lunar New Year 2023 began on January 22, and celebrations end on February 5 with the Lantern Festival. The Lunar New Year, most commonly associated with the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, typically falls sometime between January 21 and February 20 annually. But shortly after that, another massive holiday brings friends and family together in several Asian countries, with concurrent parties that carry on the traditions stateside. When people talk about the “holiday season” in the U.S., they often refer to that period between Thanksgiving dinner and New Year’s Day.
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