Some Chinese start to celebrate and prepare for Chinese New Year as early as day 8 of the 12 th month of the lunar calendar. This is a festival called Laba ( 腊八 Làbā /laa-baa/ '12th lunar month' + '8'), in the traditional sense, which marks the beginning of the Spring Festival. Manchu celebrate Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) a little differently than the Han Chinese. . The Manchu make their traditional snack — Saqima — from refined flour, eggs, sugar, sesame, fruits and melon seeds. On New Year’s the eve, people paste Spring Couplets, paper cuts, and portraits of the Door God and wear pouches. During Chinese New Year, people have a long list of things to do. From one week preceding the festival to the 15th day after, many Chinese New Year customs are widely observed for thousands of years. The family reunion dinner, eating dumplings, and setting off firework are the must-dos that you might know. What else interesting do the Chinese do? As the last day of the lunar year, Chinese New Year's Eve (除夕 chú xī) is the day before Chinese New Year. It is a grand reunion time for the whole Chinese family. People will participate in many activities to celebrate the coming new year. Chinese New Year's Eve Traditions 1. Putting Up New Year Decorations Let's delve into the numbers, particularly the surge in “dragon babies”. In 2024, during the Year of the Dragon, China witnessed a 5.7% year-on-year increase in births, with South Korea seeing a 3% rise. These spikes are noteworthy, considering both nations are grappling with declining birth rates. For some Chinese communities observing Lunar New Year, adhering to specific rituals — from early preparations, to visiting etiquette and food choices — help set the tone for the rest of the year. The lunar calendar, unlike the Gregorian calendar, uses the phases of the moon to delineate days, weeks and months of the year. A lunar month is the period of time from one new moon to the next Chinese New Year, the grandest festival for Chinese people, is celebrated for more than half a month. According to the oldest traditions, people follow a day-by-day schedule of Chinese New Year festivities from the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, with specific things to do on certain days. Most of the traditions we see today have been passed down from the past. Read the top 15 Chinese New Year Traditional activities below: Chinese New Year traditions 1. House Cleaning. In the days leading up to Chinese New Year, Chinese families sweep the floors, wash clothes and other things, clean spiders' webs, and dredge ditches. Many Asian countries celebrate new year at this time, including Vietnam and Korea. Lunar New Year, often called the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year, is the most important holiday in China and Travelling instead of staying at home to celebrate Chinese New Year has become more popular during the past few years. With the rapid development of transportation, especially high-speed railways and airways, it’s more convenient for Chinese to travel during the 7-day holiday, which provides a good opportunity for people to relax and take a Mao shared that the Hokkiens typically celebrate in a major way on the 15th day of Lunar New Year, a day called “chap goh mei,” which is their biggest celebration day. For Cantonese and Hakka, the first three days of Lunar New Year are the most auspicious, with the first day being the best day to throw open houses with lion dances. How do China's Manchu people celebrate Lunar New Year? Singaporeans celebrate Lunar New Year as one of the most auspicious holidays of the year, as well. Because there is such a big Chinese community in Singapore, many of the same cultural Chinese couplets for Lunar New Year (© RoBeDeRo via Canva) Seeing red? Red is a lucky and auspicious colour for Chinese New Year. Red represents good luck, passion and prosperity. Chinese legend also explains how red decoration scared away a demon from massacring a village, so the colour is also symbolic of warding off evil and negative energy. The new year passed days ago, but the Chinese New Year, one of the biggest Chinese festivals, is yet to come. Chinese people often spend quite a lot of time, say 16 days from Chinese New Year’s Eve to the Lantern Festival celebrating this event since Chinese New Year is a major event that marks a new start. Chinese New Years Eve: 春节: Chūnjié: Chinese New Year; Spring Festival: 春节快乐! Chūnjié kuàilè! Happy Spring Festival! 新年快乐! Xīnnián kuàilè! Happy New Year! 大吉大利! dàjídàlì! Wishing you great prosperity! 恭喜发财: gōngxǐ fācái: May you have a prosperous new year: 鼠年大吉: shǔnián dàjí Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) is a time for families to be together. Chinese New Year's Eve is the most important time. Wherever they are, people are expected to be home to celebrate the festival with their families. The Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is called 'reunion dinner'. Big families of several generations sit around round tables and 7. Sending Chinese New Year Wishes. During Chinese New Year, Chinese people will greet each other with pleasant words like: 'Xin nian kuai le' which means 'Happy New Year' (simplified Chinese: 新年快乐). See more Chinese New Year Greetings and Wishes. 8. Watching the New Year TV Gala In the Philippines, Chinese New Year traditions always include lots of good food, and even people who don’t celebrate the holiday look forward to the dishes they can expect during the festivities. The most popular of these Filipino Chinese New Year foods is the “Chinese New Year’s cake,” made of glutinous rice, called the tikoy in
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