Chinese New Year
(Between January 21 and February 20)
Welcome to our Chinese New Year page

Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries where there are large Chinese populations. The United States is one such country, California one such state, and San Francisco one such city. If you would like to take a look at Chinese New Year Events at San Francisco Chinatown, please visit
http://www.sanfranciscochinatown.com/events/index.html

If you would like to see the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade, one of the big events of the year in San Francisco, please visit http://www.chinatownparade.org/
Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival, is the most important traditional Chinese holiday. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year's Day, celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar. This is the day of the second new moon after the winter solstice, unless there is an intercalary eleventh or twelfth month in the lead-up to the New Year. In such a case, the New Year falls on the day of the third new moon after the solstice. The next time this occurs is in 2033. The Chinese New Year period ends with the Lantern Festival, on the fifteenth day of the festival.

According to legend, the beginning of the year began with month 1 during the Xia Dynasty, month 12 during the Shang Dynasty, and month 11 during the Zhou Dynasty, but intercalary months were added after month 12 during both the Shang Dynasty according to surviving oracle bones and the Zhou Dynasty according to Sima Qian. The first Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang changed the beginning of the year to month 10 in 221 BC. Whether the New Year was celebrated at the beginning of these months or at the beginning of month 1 or both is unknown. In 104 BC, Emperor Wu established month 1 as the beginning of the year where it remains.

According to legend, in ancient China, Nian, a man-eating predatory beast from the mountains, could silently infiltrate houses. The Chinese were always very scared of this monster. The Chinese later learned that Nian was sensitive to loud noises and the color red, and so they scared Nian away with explosions, fireworks and the liberal use of the color red. So GuoNian actually means Passover the Nian. These customs led to the first New Year celebrations.

ChuXi 
Chu means 'get rid of' and Xi is the day of the legendary man-eating beast, Nian, that preys once a year on New Year Eve. When Nian arrived, people used firecrackers to scare him away. Once Nian ran away, people joined together to celebrate for another year of safe life.

Celebrated internationally in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, Chinese New Year is considered to be a major holiday for the Chinese as well as ethnic groups such as the Mongolians, Koreans, the Miao (Chinese Hmong), the Vietnamese, Tibetans, the Nepalese and the Bhutanese who were strongly influenced by Chinese culture in terms of philosophical and religious worldview, language and culture in general. Chinese New Year is also the time when the largest human migration takes place when overseas Chinese all around the world return home on the eve of Chinese New Year to have reunion dinners with their families.

Many online Chinese Sign calculators do not account for the non-alignment of the two calendars, incorrectly using Gregorian-calendar years rather than official Chinese New Year dates.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_astrology#Table_of_the_lunar_calendar_and_zodiac for a list of Chinese New Year dates for every year from 1900 to 2020, covering one full sexagesimal cycle (1924-1983) and portions of two others.

Public Holiday
Chinese New Year is observed as a public holiday in a number of countries and territories where a sizeable Chinese population resides. Since Chinese New Year falls on different dates on the Gregorian calendar every year on different days of the week, some of these governments opt to shift working days in order to accommodate a longer public holiday. Also like many other countries in the world, a statutory holiday is added on the following workday when the New Year falls on the weekend.

Other Official Acknowledgements
A few countries around the world regularly issue postage stamps and/or numismatic coins to commemorate Chinese New Year. Although Chinese New Year is not institutionalized as a public holiday, these countries recognize the significant number of their citizens who are of Chinese origin.
Some of these countries and territories are Australia, Canada, Christmas Island, El Salvador, France, United States, and the Philippines.

Festivities
The New Year season lasts for fifteen days. The first week is the most important and most often celebrated with visits to friends and family as well as greetings of good luck. The celebrations end on the important and colorful Lantern Festival on the evening of the 15th day of the month. However, Chinese believe that on the third day of the Chinese New Year it is not appropriate to visit family and friends, and call the day chec hao (赤口), meaning 'easy to get into arguments.'

The date of the Chinese New Year 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 Japanese, the Tibetan, the Vietnamese and the pagan Bulgars. Chinese New Year starts on the first day of the new year containing a new moon (some sources even include New Year's Eve) and ends on the Lantern Festival fourteen days later. This occurs around the time of the full moon as each lunation is about 29.53 days in duration. In the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, on a date between January 21 and February 20. In traditional Chinese Culture, Lichun is a solar term marking the start of spring, which usually falls on either February 4 or 5.

Most importantly, the first day of Chinese New Year is a time where families will pay a visit to their oldest person in the family, usually their parents or grandparents, or even great grandparents. The venue of the Reunion Dinner is usually, if not always, at the eldest and most respected family residence. This has been in practice for many centuries.

Decorations
Red banners with 'Luck' (福) written on them are hung around the house and on the fronts of doors. This sign is usually seen hung upside down, since the word 'upside down' shares the same pronunciation as 'arrive' in Chinese, therefore symbolizing the arrival of luck or happiness.

Foods
Several foods are eaten to usher in wealth, happiness, and good fortune. Several of the foods pronounced in Chinese are homophones to words that also mean good things.
Fish - Is usually eaten on the eve of Chinese New Year.

Dumplings - Eaten traditionally because the preparation is similar to packaging luck inside the dumpling, which is later eaten.
Candy
Kwatji
Turnip/Taro cakes
Mooncakes

The First Chinese New Year Parade 
In 1849, with the discovery of gold and the ensuing California Gold Rush, over 50,000 people had come to San Francisco to seek their fortune or just a better way of life. Among those were many Chinese, who had come to work in the gold mines and on the railroad. By the 1860s, the Chinese were eager to share their culture with those who were unfamiliar with it. 
They chose to showcase their culture by using a favorite American tradition - the parade. Nothing like it had ever been done in their native China. They invited a variety of other groups from the city to participate, and they marched down what today are Grant Avenue and Kearny Street carrying colorful flags, banners, lanterns, and drums and firecrackers to drive away evil spirits.

Greetings
The Chinese New Year is often accompanied by loud, enthusiastic greetings, often referred to as 吉祥話 (J xi ngh a), or loosely translated as auspicious words or phrases including the following: 

Happy New Year
Congratulations and be prosperous

This page is based on a page from Wikipedia titled Chinese New Year. You can find the page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year. Wikipedia is open source. That means anyone is free to use it and alter it as long as they credit the source. Wikipedia is not copyright, it is leftright. The Chinese New Year related text on this page is also leftright. You are free to use it as you like as long as you credit Aaron Teaches and Wikipedia for our authorship. This means that if you want to use this, you must include a statement crediting us and provide links to Aaron Teaches and Wikipedia.