Where is chinese new year celebrated

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Where is chinese new year celebrated
Beijing, China aaJanuary, 24, 2012: A Peking Opera actor holding a Chinese gold ingot in his arms to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Changdian Temple Fair.

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year, is the most significant traditional holiday celebrated by ethnic Chinese communities worldwide. The festival takes place on the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar, which typically falls between late January and mid-February. The celebration lasts for 15 days, culminating in the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the new year. Chinese New Year is an integral part of Chinese culture and heritage, representing a time for family reunions, cultural festivities, and spiritual renewal.

Beijing, China aaJanuary, 24, 2012: A Peking Opera actor holding a Chinese gold ingot in his arms to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Changdian Temple Fair.

Chinese New Year is primarily celebrated in several East Asian countries, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Each country has its unique customs, traditions, and practices surrounding the festival, reflecting the diverse cultural and historical influences that shape their respective societies. However, despite these regional differences, the underlying essence of Chinese New Year remains consistent across all these places, emphasizing the themes of reunion, renewal, and good luck.

Chinese traditional festival Lantern Festival, colorful lanterns in Taiwan Lantern Festival(Text: Lucky Fortune, Happy New Year)

In China, where the majority of the world’s ethnic Chinese people reside, Chinese New Year is a national public holiday that lasts for seven days. The festival is so important that it triggers the largest annual human migration in the world, with hundreds of millions of people traveling from urban areas to their rural hometowns to reunite with family and friends. The practice of returning home for Chinese New Year, known as chunyun, is a cherished tradition that underscores the significance of familial ties and filial piety in Chinese society.

Chinese New Year festivities in China involve a range of customs and rituals, including decorating homes with red lanterns, couplets, and auspicious symbols; shopping for new clothes, food, and gifts; preparing special dishes like dumplings, hot pot, and sticky rice cakes; setting off fireworks and firecrackers; and participating in lion and dragon dances, temple fairs, and other cultural performances. One of the most iconic Chinese New Year traditions in China is the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, a massive televised variety show featuring music, dance, comedy, and skits that draws over a billion viewers each year.

In Hong Kong, Chinese New Year is also a public holiday, with festivities lasting for three days. The city’s celebrations center around Victoria Harbour, where a magnificent fireworks display illuminates the skyline, and the famous Tsim Sha Tsui parade attracts thousands of spectators. Hong Kong’s tradition of giving red envelopes, called lai see, containing money to children and unmarried adults, is another popular and auspicious custom associated with Chinese New Year.

Taiwanese New Year, or guonian in Mandarin, is celebrated similarly to mainland Chinese New Year, with families gathering to eat traditional foods, play games, and light firecrackers to ward off evil spirits. However, Taiwan’s unique blend of indigenous, Japanese, and Chinese cultural influences also manifests in its New Year traditions, such as worshipping Mazu, the goddess of the sea, visiting temples, and releasing sky lanterns into the sky.

Singapore’s Chinese New Year celebrations are characterized by an array of cultural activities, including lion and dragon dances, street performances, and night markets selling festive goods and delicacies. One of the city-state’s most notable traditions is the Chingay Parade, a spectacular procession featuring floats, acrobats, and colorful costumes that draws thousands of spectators and participants.

Overhead view of a Chinese New Year reunion dinner activity

Malaysia’s Chinese New Year festivities reflect the country’s multicultural identity, blending Chinese, Malay, and Indian cultural elements. In addition to the traditional practices of cleaning, decorating, and feasting, Malaysian Chinese also participate in open-house visits, where they invite friends and neighbors from different ethnic backgrounds to share in the festive spirit.

Indonesia’s Chinese New Year celebrations are centered around the vibrant Chinatowns of Jakarta and Surabaya, where festive decorations, traditional foods, and cultural performances abound. Despite being a minority group in the predominantly Muslim country, Indonesian Chinese continue to uphold their cultural heritage through New Year practices like lion and dragon dances, praying to ancestors, and exchanging red envelopes.

Banda Aceh, Indonesia – January 22, 2023 ; hundreds of people enthusiastically watched the lion dance performance held around the monastery to celebrate Chinese New Year 2023

Thailand’s Chinese New Year, known as Songkran, overlaps with the country’s own New Year festivities in April. However, Thai Chinese communities still celebrate the lunar new year with the same fervor and colorful pageantry as their counterparts. Some distinctive Thai Chinese New Year traditions include making merit at temples, lighting candles and incense, and releasing fish and birds into the wild as a symbolic gesture of renewal.

The Philippines’ Chinese New Year celebrations are rooted in the country’s long history of trade and cultural exchange with China. While Filipino Chinese make up a relatively small percentage of the population, their influence is felt throughout the country during the lunar new year. Filipino-Chinese communities celebrate the festival with fireworks, dragon and lion dances, and street parades featuring floats and traditional costumes.

Chinese New Year’s growing popularity worldwide has also led to widespread adoption and adaptation of its customs and traditions in diverse contexts. Countries with significant overseas Chinese populations

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