Chinese New Year facts for kids

Chinese New Year 2011 in Southeast China on February 3, 2011

The Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is the most important holiday for ethnic Chinese people all around the world. The Chinese calendar and dates are traditionally based on changes of the moon, not the sun. The New Year starts at the beginning of this lunar (moon) calendar, and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day.

The people celebrate this festival for fifteen days. On the holiday's eve, families come together to eat a meal in the evening. This meal is called the reunion dinner. No matter how far away they are, Chinese people will try to visit with their families at least this one time of the year. not only enjoying the meal but also watching a New Year Eve's gala with family members. Married daughters also return to visit their parents.

Early new year

Chinese people visit their grandparents, parents, friends and relatives during the first few days of the New Year. The older and married people give the younger ones red paper packets called hongbao in Mandarin (Lai See in Cantonese). This packet has money inside it. It is believed to bring luck.

Chinese people wear new clothes when they go on visits. This clothing is usually red in color. They say special phrases to wish other people good luck when they see them. They also exchange mandarin oranges for good luck.

Late new year

The last day of the New Year celebration is called the Lantern Festival, or the Yuanxiao. On this day, families cook dumplings made of sticky rice. They eat them in a sweet soup. There are also many beautiful lanterns that decorate the streets in China and Chinatowns. Traditionally, on this day, adults can choose a partner. Long ago in China, this would have been one of the few days when women of rich families were allowed to go outside their houses with their maids.

Beginning

Animal	Branch	Dates		More Dates
鼠 Rat	子 Zi	February 19, 1996	February 7, 2008	January 25, 2020
牛 Ox	丑 Chou	February 7, 1997	January 26, 2009	February 14, 2021
虎 Tiger	寅 Yin	January 28, 1998	February 14, 2010	February 25, 2022
兔 Rabbit	卯 Mao	February 16, 1999	February 3, 2011	January 27, 2023
龍 Dragon	辰 Chen	February 5, 2000	January 23, 2012	February 14, 2024
蛇 Snake	巳 Si	January 24, 2001	February 10, 2013	January 19, 2025
馬 Horse	午 Wu	February 12, 2002	January 31, 2014	February 21, 2026
羊 Goat	未 Wei	February 1, 2003	February 19, 2015	February 26, 2027
猴 Monkey	申 Shen	January 22, 2004	February 8, 2016	January 14, 2028
雞 Rooster	酉 You	February 9, 2005	January 28, 2017	February 2, 2029
狗 Dog	戌 Xu	January 29, 2006	February 16, 2018	February 17, 2030
豬 Pig	亥 Hai	February 18, 2007	February 5, 2019	January 20, 2031

Chinese New Year starts on the first day of the new year that has a new moon. It ends with the Lantern Festival 14 days later. This occurs around the time of the full moon as each complete moon cycle is about 29.53 days long. In the Gregorian calendar used in other countries, Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year. It is usually between January 21 and February 20. This means that the holiday usually starts on the second (sometimes the third) new moon after the winter solstice.

Animal zodiacs

The dates for the Spring Festival from 1996 to 2019 (in the Gregorian calendar) are at the right. The list also includes the year's animal zodiac and it's earthly branch. The names of the earthly branches have no English translations. They are not Chinese translations of the animals. The calendar has a 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac and a 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Chinese astrology. These elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The elements are changed every two years and a yin and yang association changes every year. The elements are named: Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, and so on. These two cycles create a combined cycle that repeats every 60 years. For example, 1936 was the year of the Yang Fire Rat. 60 years later, 1996 was the next year of the Yang Fire Rat.

Differences

Some people had problems with the difference between the Chinese birth-year and the Gregorian birth-year. Because the Chinese New Year starts in late January or early February, the Chinese year begins several weeks after it begins in the Gregorian calendar. If a person is born in early January, their Chinese birth-year is the last Gregorian year, not the current one. This causes problems because many people think of the years as the same. For example, 1989 was the year of the Snake. The year 1990 was the year of the Horse. It began on 26 January 1990. This means that anyone born from January 1 to January 25, 1990, was actually born in the year of the Snake not the year of the Horse.

Hong Kong firework show

Comparison

Chinese New Year is a great festival to Chinese. But it is celebrated differently in China and the West. People in China normally will take at least three days off. They will go to see colorful church fair in Beijing and to see martial arts performance. In Guangzhou and Hong Kong, they will go to see flower markets, night march, horse racing and fireworks shows. However in the West, like California and Canada, they will normally celebrate in China towns. People will eat Chinese food, exchange presents, and clothing. They will have dragon parade and marching band. The celebration will last for two weeks long.

Chinese Dragon Parade

Griffin, Robert H., and Ann H. Shurgin. Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Holidays. Detroit, MI: UXL, 2000. Print.

Wu, Annie. "The Top 4 Cities For Celebrating Chinese New Year 2016". ChinaHighlights. N.p., 2016. Web. 23 May 2016.

Festive food

Chinese Dumplings

Chinese people often wants to aim a better luck and success in a new year by eating certain types of food. They choose those dishes that may contain symbolic significances. Some dishes are chosen based on their pronunciation and look in order to bring luck throughout the year. For example, people like to eat dumplings during the festival, since dumplings, made of flour dough with meat inside, shaped like a silver ingot. They could symbolize a person could make more money as they eat more dumplings. Spring rolls, a food contain rice paper with vegetables and meat, were like gold bars that could bring them more money too.

Oranges and tangerines look like gold coins, and their Chinese names sound like gold, lucky and sweetness. It is believed that they can bring wealth and luck. Fish is also one of the popular dishes to eat during the Lunar New Year. Fish is often served at last because "fish"means abundant.

Chinese people cannot wear black or white during Chinese New Year.

Taboos

Chinese people tried to avoid doing bad things that may affect their luck in the beginning of a new year. For example, hair washing is forbidden since hair has the same sounding to getting rich in Chinese characters. It is suggested that cleaning your hair will wash away your luck. Crying, especially babies will lead to bad fortune for the family. People cannot wear black, white or damaged clothes during the festival because they are unlucky colors related to death.

Furthermore, sweeping and clothes washing may bring you bad luck. It would wash your luck away. No breaking tools during Chinese New Year because it will cause a reduction of wealth. Everyone should not be saying bad words. The Chinese word, four has the same sounding as death. Therefore, ghost stories or death are forbidden to say during Chinese New Year.

Chinese traditional customs

Chinese people like to prepare before celebrating the Chinese New Year. Cleaning the house is one of the traditional ways that every family will do. It believed that sweeping can sweep away the old things and greet the New Year. People also would do shopping, they would buy food, new clothes, and decorations.

Family Reunion Dinner

Likewise, people will hang up spring couplets and decorations in their house. They would like to put a God image, a picture of a God, in front of the door to scare the evilness during Chinese New Year. Many families will hold a family reunion dinner, this is the most important meal throughout the year. Relatives may come back and join with their family members celebrating the wonderful festival.

Wu, Annie. "Chinese New Year Celebrations, New Year Activities In China". ChinaHighlights. N.p., 2016. Web. 23 May 2016.

Images for kids

Offerings to the gods.
House doorway decorated for the New Year.
Chinese new year in Singapore Chinatown.
Chinese New Year eve in Meizhou on 8 February 2005.
Chinese new year in Japan
Southeast Asia's largest temple – Kek Lok Si in Penang, Malaysia – illuminated in preparation for the Lunar New Year.
Hand-written Chinese New Year's poetry pasted on the sides of doors leading to people's homes, Lijiang, Yunnan
Receive the Gods in Chinese New Year, (1900s)
Lion Dance for Chinese New Year celebration in Surabaya, Indonesia
Incense is burned at the graves of ancestors as part of the offering and prayer ritual.
Chinese New Year's celebrations, on the eighth day, in the Metro Vancouver suburb of Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.
One version of niangao, Chinese New Year cake
Red packets for sale in a market in Taipei, Taiwan, before the Year of the Rat
Shoppers at a New Year market in Chinatown, Singapore
Chinese candy box
A Chinese man setting off fireworks during Chinese New Year in Shanghai.
Girls dressed in red (Hong Kong).
An inverted character fu is a sign of arriving blessings.
Chinese New Year festival in Chinatown, Boston
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Scene of the 2009 Chunyun period inside Beijing West Railway Station
London: Chinatown with Chinese New Year decoration
Gaya Street in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia filled with Chinese lanterns during the New Year celebration.
Melbourne: Chinese New Year in Chinatown
Lion costume for New Year parade, Los Angeles, 1953
Chinese New Year 2014 Celebration in Kolkata
The Chinese New Year celebrated in Kolkata