Chinese New Year or 'Spring Festival' is China's most important festival and holiday. The next Chinese New Year falls on Friday, February 16th 2018, beginning a year of the Dog.
Chinese New Year is celebrated by a quarter of the world! Spring Festival is a major holiday in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and in many of China's neighboring countries such as Singapore and South Korea. And it's celebrated in the world's many China towns.
It's traditionally celebrated for 16 days, from the eve to Lantern Festival (March 2nd 2018). The coming 7-day Spring Festival public holiday will be February 15–21, 2018.
Traditions and Activities
In China, traditions and celebrations vary greatly across the country. In the North, Chinese dumplings are the must-eat food on Chinese New Year's Eve, but south of the Yangtze River most people eat spring rolls or sticky rice cake.
The main traditions include eating reunion dinner with family, giving red envelopes, firecrackers, new clothes, and decorations.
Chinese New Year Preparations
Traditionally, Chinese people believe that the Kitchen Stove God is the god of the kitchen and affairs of the home. Now fewer and fewer Chinese worship the Kitchen God on lunar month 12 day 23 to pray for blessings on their home life.
Chinese spring cleaning: A week before the new year begins, from the 23rd of the 12th lunar month (February 8, 2018), the tradition is Chinese people clean their houses thoroughly. The cleaning represents a wish to bid farewell to the old year, and welcome in new year good fortune.
Decorating Buildings and Streets with Lucky Red Items
Every street, building, and house where Spring Festival is celebrated is decorated with red. Red is the main color for the festival, as red is believed to be an auspicious color.
Red lanterns hang in streets; red couplets are pasted on doors; banks and official buildings are decorated with red New Year pictures depicting images of prosperity.
Most public decoration is done a month before, but home decoration is traditionally done on Chinese New Year's Eve. As 2018 is a year of the Dog, decorations related to dogs will be commonly seen. There are red dog dolls for children and New Year paintings with dogs on.
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