Today on Friday, February 12th, 2021 is the Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival! There are about 1.5 billion people around the world who celebrate this holiday, which takes place during either January or February and emphasizes hope and reunion. While China utilizes the Gregorian calendar year-round, the traditional lunisolar calendar is used for determining when holidays are. Therefore, the day the Lunar New Year falls depends on the moon phase, unlike how in the Roman calendar, the phases of the sun affect the timing of events. The Spring Festival goes on for approximately 40 days but is mainly observed as a seven day holiday in China. Each year has an animal to represent it, following the Chinese Zodiac, which has been prevalent in Chinese culture for over 2,000 years. This year is known as the Year of the Ox: an animal that signifies hard work and serenity! The cycle of animals repeats every 12 years between rabbit, tiger, rat, dragon, snake, horse, ox, goat, monkey, dog, pig, and rooster.
On the Lunar New Year, it is traditional to light firecrackers, hold large dinners, do good deeds, make meals with your family (especially homemade dumplings and fish), gift lucky red envelopes, watch/perform lion dances, as well as incorporate red into decorations and such. Lion dances are crucial during the Lunar New Year, in order to ward away misfortune and evil, and dressing pets in costumes is a popular tradition. There is also an importance placed on family during the festival, which explains the common traditions of cooking with family, praying together, and having intimate dinners. However, the holiday seems to center the most around the red envelopes. Originating back to around 221 to 207 BC, during the Qin dynasty, these fancy envelopes typically hold money and represent good fortune for a positive new year. They are given especially during lion dance parades, and oftentimes, children only receive them when showing respect for their elders (another critical part of the holiday). Red is very popular because it “symbolizes energy, happiness, and luck” in China (https://abc13.com/chinese-new-year-2021-of-the-ox-when-is-lunar-how-celebrated/10321848/).
Interestingly enough, the Chinese New Year also marks the busiest time of travel as millions of people migrate to their hometowns to celebrate. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, travel is restricted for this year. Also, this pandemic has caused a large number of parades, festivals, and firework shows to be canceled as they usually attract large crowds. For attending religious/cultural temples, people have to schedule prayer hours in certain time slots in order to attend, with sanitizing from health workers occurring in between groups of people. Social distancing and mask-wearing have also been involved during festivities in order to abide by safety guidelines.
Before writing this blog post, I honestly had little knowledge about the Lunar New Year. I really enjoyed learning about the significance of this holiday, though, and think appreciating different cultures is important! Let me know if you learned a lot about the Lunar New Year from this post or what your thoughts are in general!
https://abc7news.com/lunar-new-year-of-the-ox-2021-china/10330577/
https://abc13.com/chinese-new-year-2021-of-the-ox-when-is-lunar-how-celebrated/10321848/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/how-people-are-celebrating-year-ox-despite-covid-n1257590
Hi Dori!
ReplyDeleteThank you for explaining this to me! I have been seeing a lot of tiktoks about "The Year of the Ox" and have been getting quite confused. The way they celebrate is very similar to how we use the Jewish calendar which is pretty cool.
Hi Dori,
ReplyDeleteThis was really insightful! Thank you for teaching me all about the Lunar New Year. The system that is used seems very deep, interesting, and cool. I had really never heard of it before this.