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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.
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!
There are 12 Chinese Zodiac animals in total. Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Red is the colour and symbol of good luck in Chinese culture and is used in New Year Decorations. You could:
During Chinese New Year, adults gift lucky red envelopes containing money to children.
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.
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.
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.
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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