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Facts about Chinese New Year
What happens on Chinese New Year?
In China, New Year is a week-long public holiday, just like Christmas in the UK, Chinese New Year is a time for families to come together.
New Year’s Eve is the centre of festivities where families sit down and have a ‘reunion dinner’, like our traditional Christmas lunch. The Chinese population are expected to be at home to celebrate the festival with their families.
Some facts that you may not have known about Chinese New Year and it’s celebrations.
1. Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival.
2. There is no set date for Chinese New Year very year.
3. Chinese New Year is a day for praying to gods.
4. …and fighting off monsters.
5. The most fireworks are set off in the world that night.
6. It is the longest Chinese holiday.
The Spring Festival is technically 15 days. But celebrations start on New Year’s Eve (making it 16 days). You can also say that the holiday season starts in (lunar) December with the Laba Festival (腊八节 / là bā jié). That’s around 40 days of celebrations!
7. And the Spring Festival causes the largest human migration in the world.
8. Children receive red envelopes which contain ‘lucky money’.
9. You can eat dumplings for every meal, every day.
10. Chinese New Year desserts have different meanings.
11. There’s special wine for the Spring Festival.
12. Red is the most popular colour decoration for Chinese New Year.
13. Every year has a zodiac animal.
There are 12 Chinese Zodiac animals in total. Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig.
14. Your zodiac year is bad luck.
As the Chinese zodiac starts over every 12 years, your animal year will come around when you are 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, etc. According to ancient Chinese superstition, in your birth sign year, you will offend the God of Age, and will have bad luck during that year.
15. You grow 1 year older on the Spring Festival.
16. The New Year greeting in Chinese is “xin nian kuai le”.
17. Chinese New Year ends with the Lantern Festival.
In ancient times, girls weren’t allowed to venture outside by themselves. But on this night, they were able to walk around, moon-gaze and look at the beautiful lanterns. Because of this, it’s also known as Valentine’s Day in China.
18. Chinese New Year is celebrated all around the world.
One out of every 5 people in the world is Chinese. But that stat doesn’t include the millions of overseas Chinese and people of Chinese descent.
How to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Clean your home.
The cleaning tradition is founded on the belief that cleaning your house just before Chinese New Year will sweep away the bad luck that you had accumulated over the past year, and cleaning it makes it ready for all the good luck that the new year will bring.
Put up red decorations.
Red is the colour and symbol of good luck in Chinese culture and is used in New Year Decorations. You could:
- Put up paper cut-outs.
- Decorate with paper lanterns.
- Check out this 2024 year of the Dragon luxury scented candle.
Giving of red envelopes.
During Chinese New Year, adults gift lucky red envelopes containing money to children.
Living at Host Student Accommodation in London?
Chinese New Year in London is the biggest celebration of the Chinese New Year outside of Asia.
Taking place on the 11th February, the free event takes place across the West End, From Shaftesbury Avenue to Trafalgar Square. The colourful celebrations usually include the vibrant Chinese New Year parade, featuring floats and the largest gathering of Chinese lions and dragons in Europe.
Keep up to date with the celebrations with the official #CNYLondon hashtag. To find out more about the events in London during Chinese New Year, be sure to check out Visit London.
In Birmingham?
Birmingham’s Lunar New Year Festival shines a spotlight on the fantastic talent within the region and celebrates the many communities marking the Lunar New Year.
Or living in Southampton with Host?
Each year, UK Shaolin and The Southampton Community come together to celebrate this auspicious occasion with a series of colourful events, cultural performances, and traditional customs.
#HostEnvironmentalPledge.
Getting serious about the environment we live in.
To become more ‘environmentally friendly’, Host is launching the #HostEnvironmentalPledge campaign to encourage responsible behaviour and drive sustainability across our sites throughout the UK and Ireland.
It’s a simple campaign! For every percent we reduce our overall utilities (electric, water and gas) consumption by we donate to one of our nominated charities.
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