Chinese New Year....

 Happy New Year in Chinese!

The Chinese New Year or the Lunar New Year is the most widely celebrated Chinese holiday across the globe. The festivities begin on the first day of the first lunar month on the Chinese calendar and continue until the 15th of the lunar month when the moon is full.

Chinese legend holds that Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on New Year's Day and named a year after each of the twelve animals that came. It is an ancient belief that people born in each animal's year have some of that animal's personality traits.

This year, the Chinese New Year falls on February 1, 2022, and will begin the Year of the Tiger.

Chinese New Year traditions

◊ In preparation for the new year, the Chinese will clean their homes and put-up red decorations and lanterns.

◊ The celebrations will then officially kick off with a New Year’s Eve family dinner, with fish and dumplings being served to encourage prosperity.

◊ Shou Sui, which translates as “after the New Year's Eve dinner”, follows the traditional feast, where families stay awake throughout the night and gather for fireworks at midnight to banish evil.

◊ Elders typically give children red packets containing money at Chinese New Year, to help them avoid evil and wish them good health.

◊ Firework displays during Lunar New Year stem from a custom of lighting bamboo stalks on fire to ward off evil spirits.

◊ Lunar New Year ends with the lantern festival, celebrated at night with displays and parades of painted lanterns.

◊ The highlight of the Lantern Festival is the Dragon Dance. Beautiful dragons made of paper, silk, and bamboo are held overhead and appear to dance as they make their way along the parade routes.

Year of the Tiger

People born in the Year of the Tiger are known to be courageous, competitive, and self-assured. On the other side, they may be unpredictable, impatient, and overindulgent at times.

To find out what Chinese zodiac animal you are, go here. Chinese Zodiac Sign Calculator

The Chinese language is not written in the same way as the English language, and the two most prominent ways of pronouncing words in Chinese are in Mandarin and Cantonese.

The most common way to wish your close friends and loved ones a happy New Year is: “Xīnnián hǎo”, which is written 新年好.

Xīnnián hǎo literally translates as ‘New Year Goodness’, similar to have a nice day/New Year. 

This is pronounced in Mandarin as ‘sshin-nyen haoww’ and Cantonese as ‘sen nin haow’.