Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the

traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. In Chinese, the festival is commonly referred to as

the Spring Festival (traditional Chinese: 春節; simplified Chinese: 春节; pinyin: Chūnjié)
[2]
as the spring season in the lunisolar calendar traditionally starts with lichun, the first of
the twenty-four solar terms which the festival celebrates around the time of the Chinese
New Year.[3] Marking the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season,
observances traditionally take place from Chinese New Year's Eve, the evening
preceding the first day of the year, to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the
year. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between
21 January and 20 February.[note 1]

Chinese New Year is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture, and has
strongly influenced Lunar New Year celebrations of its 56 ethnic groups, such as
the Losar of Tibet (Tibetan: ལོ་གསར་), and of China's neighbours, including the Korean New
Year (Korean: 설날; RR: Seollal), and the Tết of Vietnam,[5] as well as in Okinawa.[6] It is
also celebrated worldwide in regions and countries that house significant Overseas
Chinese or Sinophone populations, especially in Southeast Asia. These include
Singapore,[7] Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar,[8] the Philippines,
[9]
Thailand, and Vietnam. It is also prominent beyond Asia, especially in Australia,
Canada, Mauritius,[10] New Zealand, Peru,[11] South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the
United States, as well as various European countries.[12][13][14]

The Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs. The festival was
traditionally a time to honour deities as well as ancestors.[15] Within China, regional
customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the New Year vary widely,[16] and the
evening preceding the New Year's Day is frequently regarded as an occasion for
Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also a tradition for every
family to thoroughly clean their house, in order to sweep away any ill fortune and to make
way for incoming good luck. Another custom is the decoration of windows and doors with
red paper-cuts and couplets. Popular themes among these paper-cuts and couplets
include good fortune or happiness, wealth, and longevity. Other activities include lighting
firecrackers and giving money in red envelopes.

Dates in Chinese lunisolar calenda

See also: Chinese calendar
 The largest Chinese New Year parade

outside Asia, in Chinatown, Manhattan

Traditional paper cutting with the character "Spring" (春)

Chinese New Year decorations along New

Bridge Road in Singapore Chinese New Year

eve in Meizhou on 8 February 2005

The Chinese calendar defines the lunar month containing the winter solstice as the
eleventh month, meaning that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new
moon after the winter solstice (rarely the third if an intercalary month intervenes).[17] In
more than 96 per cent of the years, Chinese New Year's Day is the closest date to a new
moon to lichun (Chinese: 立春; lit. 'establishment of spring') on 4 or 5 February, and the
first new moon after dahan (Chinese: 大寒; lit. 'major cold'). In the Gregorian calendar, the
Chinese New Year begins at the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20
February.[18]

Gregoria
Date Animal Day of the week
n

2023 22 Jan Rabbit Sunday

2024 10 Feb Dragon Saturday

2025 29 Jan Snake Wednesday

2026 17 Feb Horse Tuesday

2027 6 Feb Goat Saturday

Monke
2028 26 Jan Wednesday
y

Rooste
2029 13 Feb Tuesday
r

2030 3 Feb Dog Sunday

2031 23 Jan Pig Thursday

2032 11 Feb Rat Wednesday

2033 31 Jan Ox Monday

2034 19 Feb Tiger Sunday

Mythology

Hand-written Chinese New Year's poetry

pasted on the sides of doors leading to people's homes, Lijiang,
Yunnan
According to legend, Chinese New Year started with a mythical beast called the Nian (a
beast that lives under the sea or in the mountains) during the annual Spring Festival. The
Nian would eat villagers, especially children in the middle of the night.[19] One year, all the
villagers decided to hide from the beast. An older man appeared before the villagers went
into hiding and said that he would stay the night and would get revenge on the Nian. The
old man put red papers up and set off firecrackers. The day after, the villagers came back
to their town and saw that nothing had been destroyed. They assumed that the old man
was a deity who came to save them. The villagers then understood that Yanhuang had
discovered that the Nian was afraid of the color red and loud noises.[19] Then the tradition
grew when New Year was approaching, and the villagers would wear red clothes, hang
red lanterns, and red spring scrolls on windows and doors and used firecrackers and
drums to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again.
The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk.[20]

History
Before the new year celebration was established, ancient Chinese gathered and
celebrated the end of harvest in autumn. However, this was not the Mid-Autumn Festival,
during which Chinese gathered with family to worship the Moon. In the Classic of Poetry,
a poem written during Western Zhou (1045 BC – 771 BC) by an anonymous farmer,
described the traditions of celebrating the 10th month of the ancient solar calendar, which
was in autumn.[21] According to the poem, during this time people clean millet-stack sites,
toast guests with mijiu (rice wine), kill lambs and cook their meat, go to their masters'
home, toast the master, and cheer the prospect of living long together. The 10th-month
celebration is believed to be one of the prototypes of Chinese New Year.[22] The records
of the first Chinese new year celebration can be traced to the Warring States period (475
BC – 221 AD). In the Lüshi Chunqiu, in Qin state an exorcism ritual to expel illness,
called "Big Nuo" (大儺), was recorded as being carried out on the last day of the year.[23]
[24]
Later, Qin unified China, and the Qin dynasty was founded; and the ritual spread. It
evolved into the practice of cleaning one's house thoroughly in the days preceding
Chinese New Year.
The first mention of celebrating at the start of a new year was recorded during the Han
dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). In the book Simin Yueling (四民月令), written by the Eastern
Han agronomist Cui Shi (崔寔), a celebration was described: "The starting day of the first
month, is called Zheng Ri. I bring my wife and children, to worship ancestors and
commemorate my father." Later he wrote: "Children, wife, grandchildren, and great-
grandchildren all serve pepper wine to their parents, make their toast, and wish their
parents good health. It's a thriving view."[25] The practice of worshipping ancestors on New
Year's Eve is maintained by Chinese people to this day.[26]

Han Chinese also started the custom of visiting acquaintances' homes and wishing each
other a happy new year. In Book of the Later Han, volume 27, a county officer was
recorded as going to his prefect's house with a government secretary, toasting the
prefect, and praising the prefect's merit.[27][28]

During the Jin dynasty (266 – 420 AD), people started the New Year's Eve tradition of all-
night revelry called shousui (守歲). It was described in Western Jin general Zhou Chu's
article Fengtu Ji (風土記 “Notes on Local Conditions”): "At the ending of a year, people
gift and wish each other, calling it Kuisui (饋歲 “gift time”); people invited others with
drinks and food, calling it Biesui (別歲 “others time”); on New Year's Eve, people stayed
up all night until sunrise, calling it Shousui (守歲 “guard the year”)."[29] The article used
the word chu xi (除夕) to indicate New Year's Eve, and the name is still used until this
day.

The Northern and Southern dynasties book Jingchu Suishiji described the practice of
firing bamboo in the early morning of New Year's Day,[30] which became a New Year
tradition of the ancient Chinese. Poet and chancellor of the Tang dynasty Lai Gu also
described this tradition in his poem Early Spring (早春): "新曆才将半纸开，小亭猶聚爆竿
灰", meaning "Another new year just started as a half opening paper, and the family
gathered around the dust of exploded bamboo pole".[31] The practice was used by ancient
Chinese people to scare away evil spirits, since firing bamboo would noisily crack or
explode the hard plant.

During the Tang dynasty, people established the custom of sending bai nian tie (拜年帖),
which are New Year's greeting cards. It is said that the custom was started by Emperor
Taizong of Tang. The emperor wrote "普天同慶" (whole nation celebrate together) on
gold leaves and sent them to his ministers. Word of the emperor's gesture spread, and
later it became the custom of people in general, who used Xuan paper instead of gold
leaves.[32] Another theory is that bai nian tie was derived from the Han dynasty's name
tag, "門狀" (door opening). As imperial examinations became essential and reached their
heyday under the Tang dynasty, candidates curried favour to become pupils of respected
teachers, in order to get recommendation letters. After obtaining good examination
marks, a pupil went to the teacher's home with a men zhuang (门状) to convey their
gratitude. Therefore, eventually men zhuang became a symbol of good luck, and people
started sending them to friends on New Year's Day, calling them by a new name, bai
nian tie (拜年帖, New Year's Greetings).[33]

Spring couplets written by Qianlong

Emperor of Qing dynasty, now stored in The Palace Museum

The Chunlian (Spring Couplets) was written by Meng Chang, an emperor of the Later
Shu (935–965 AD), during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period："新年納餘慶，
嘉節號長春" (Enjoying past legacies in the new year, the holiday foreseeing the long-
lasting spring). As described by Song dynasty official Zhang Tangying in his book Shu
Tao Wu, volume 2: on the day of New Year's Eve, the emperor ordered the scholar Xin
Yinxun to write the couplets on peach wood and hang them on the emperor's bedroom
door.[34][35] It is believed that placing the couplets on the door to the home in the days
preceding the new year was widespread during the Song dynasty. The famous Northern
Song politician, litterateur, philosopher, and poet Wang Anshi recorded the custom in his
poem "元日" (New Year's Day).[36]

爆竹聲中一歲除， Amid the sound of firecrackers a year has come to an end,

春風送暖入屠蘇。 The spring wind has wafted warm breath to the Tusu wine.
千門萬戶瞳瞳日， While the rising sun shines over each and every household,
總把新桃換舊符。 People get rid of the old couplets and put up the new ones.

—王安石, 元日 —Wang Anshi, New Year's Day

 Chinese firecracker (鞭炮)

The poem Yuan Ri (元日) also includes the word "爆竹" (bao zhu, exploding bamboo),
which is believed to be a reference to firecrackers, instead of the previous tradition of
firing bamboo, both of which are called the same in the Chinese language.
After gunpowder was invented in the Tang dynasty and widely used under the Song
dynasty, people modified the tradition of firing bamboo by filling the bamboo pole with
gunpowder, which made for louder explosions. Later under the Song, people discarded
the bamboo and started to use paper to wrap the gunpowder in cylinders, in imitation of
the bamboo. The firecracker was still called "爆竹", thus equating the new and old
traditions. It is also recorded that people linked the firecrackers with hemp rope and
created the "鞭炮" (bian pao, gunpowder whip) in the Song dynasty. Both "爆竹" and "鞭
炮" are still used by present-day people to celebrate the Chinese New Year and other
festive occasions.[37]

It was also during the Song dynasty that people started to give money to children in
celebration of a new year. The money was called sui nian qian (随年钱), meaning "the
money based on age". In the chapter "Ending of a year" (歲除) of Wulin jiushi (武林舊事),
the writer recorded that concubines of the emperor prepared a hundred and twenty coins
for princes and princesses, to wish them long lives.[38]

The new year celebration continued under the Yuan dynasty, when people also
gave nian gao (年糕, year cakes) to relatives.[39]

The tradition of eating Chinese dumplings jiaozi (餃子) was established under the Ming
dynasty at the latest. It is described in the book Youzhongzhi (酌中志): "People get up at
5 in the morning of new year's day, burn incense and light firecrackers, throw door latch
or wooden bars in the air three times, drink pepper and thuja wine, eat dumplings.
Sometimes put one or two silver currency inside dumplings, and whoever gets the money
will attain a year of fortune."[40] Modern Chinese people also put other food that is
auspicious into dumplings: such as dates, which prophesy a flourishing new year; candy,
which predicts sweet days; and nian gao, which foretells a rich life.

In the Qing dynasty, the name ya sui qian (壓歲錢, New Year's Money) was given to the
lucky money given to children at the new year. The book Qing Jia Lu (清嘉錄) recorded:
"elders give children coins threaded together by a red string, and the money is called Ya
Sui Qian."[41] The name is still used by modern Chinese people. The lucky money was
presented in one of two forms: one was coins strung on red string; the other was a
colourful purse filled with coins.[42] In 1928, the ruling Kuomintang party decreed that the
Chinese New Year would fall on 1 Jan of the Gregorian Calendar, but this was
abandoned due to overwhelming popular opposition. In 1967, during the Cultural
Revolution, official Chinese New Year celebrations were banned in China. The State
Council of the People's Republic of China announced that the public should "change
customs"; have a "revolutionized and fighting Spring Festival"; and since people needed
to work on Chinese New Year Eve, they did not need holidays during Spring Festival day.
The old celebrations were reinstated in 1980.[43]

Naming
While "Chinese New Year" remains the official name for the festival in Taiwan, the name
"Spring Festival" was adopted by the People's Republic of China instead. On the other
hand, some in the Chinese diaspora use the term "Lunar New Year", while "Chinese New
Year" remains a popular and convenient translation for people of non-Chinese cultural
backgrounds. Along with the Han Chinese in and outside Greater China, as many as 29
of the 55 ethnic minority groups in China also celebrate Chinese New Year. Korea,
Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines celebrate it as an official
festival.[44]