SpringFestival.doc

Chinese New YearChinese New Year Traditional Chinese:農曆新年Simplified Chinese:农历新年Literal meaning:Agrarian Calendar New Year[show]TransliterationsMandarin- Hanyu Pinyin:Nónglì xīnniánYue (Cantonese)- Jyutping:nung4 lik6 san1 nin4Spring FestivalTraditional Chinese:春節Simplified Chinese:春节[show]TransliterationsMandarin- Hanyu Pinyin:ChūnjiéYue (Cantonese)- Jyutping:ceon1 zit3Chinese New YearChinese New Year's Eve in Meizhou, ChinaAlso calledLunar New Year, Spring FestivalObserved byChinese communities worldwide[1]TypeCultural, Religious(Buddhist and Taoist)SignificanceThe first day of the Chinese calendar (lunar calendar)2007 dateFebruary 182008 dateFebruary 72009 dateJanuary 26CelebrationsDragon dances/Lion dances, fireworks, family gathering, family meal, visiting friends and relatives (拜年), giving red envelopes, decorating with duilian (對联).Related toLantern Festival, which concludes the celebration of the New Year.This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.How to write the Chinese character for yearChinese New Year, known in China as (simplified Chinese: 春节; traditional Chinese: 春節; pinyin: Chúnjíe), is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is sometimes called the Lunar New Year, especially by people outside China. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year's Eve is known as Chúxī (除夕, abbr. for 年除夕 Niánchúxī, Chúxì in Taiwan). It literally means "Year-pass Eve".Celebrated in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbours, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction.[citation needed] These include Taiwanese, Koreans, Mongolians, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, and formerly the Japanese before 1873. In Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other countries with significant Chinese populations, Chinese New Year is also celebrated, largely by overseas Chinese, and has, to varying degrees, become part of the traditional culture of these countries. In Canada, although Chinese New Year is not an official holiday, many ethnic Chinese hold large celebrations and Canada Post issues New Year's themed stamps in domestic and international rates.Although the Chinese calendar traditionally did not use continuously numbered years, its years are now often numbered from the reign of Huangdi outside China. But at least three different years numbered 1 are now used by various writers, causing the year beginning in 2008 to be 4706, 4705, or 4645.[2]New Year dates AnimalBranchDates鼠 Rat子 ZiFebruary 19, 1996February 7, 2008牛 Ox丑 ChouFebruary 7, 1997January 26, 2009虎 Tiger寅 YinJanuary 28, 1998February 14, 2010兔 Rabbit卯 MaoFebruary 16, 1999February 3, 2011龍 Dragon辰 ChenFebruary 5, 2000January 23, 2012蛇 Snake巳 SiJanuary 24, 2001February 10, 2013馬 Horse午 WuFebruary 12, 2002January 31, 2014羊 Sheep未 WeiFebruary 1, 2003February 19, 2015猴 Monkey申 ShenJanuary 22, 2004February 8, 2016雞 Rooster酉 YouFebruary 9, 2005January 28, 2017狗 Dog戌 XuJanuary 29, 2006February 16, 2018豬 Pig亥 HaiFebruary 18, 2007February 5, 2019Chinese New Year decoration in London's ChinatownThe lunisolar Chinese calendar determines Chinese New Year dates. The calendar is also used in countries that have adopted or have been influenced by Han culture (notably the Taiwanese, Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese) and may have a common ancestry with the similar New Years festivals outside East Asia (such as Iran, and historically, the Bulgars lands).In the Gregorian calendar, Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, a date between January 21 and February 20. This means that the holiday usually falls on the second (very rarely third) new moon after the winter solstice. In traditional Chinese Culture, lichun is a solar term marking the start of spring, which occurs about February 4.The dates for Chinese New Year from 1996 to 2019 (in the Gregorian calendar) are at the right, along with the year's presiding animal zodiac and its earthly branch. The names of the earthly branches have no English counterparts and are not the Chinese translations of the animals. Alongside the 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac there is a 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Chinese astrology, namely: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The elements are rotated every two years while a yin and yang ass。