While other people around the world are digging into the second month of the Year, Chinese will be celebrating their New Year. Though China uses the Gregorian calendar adopted in 1911, they use the Chinese calendar to mark their celebrations. Chinese calendar uses a lunisolar system which means that time is controlled by both lunar and solar cycles.
You may also hear some people refer to Chinese New Year celebrations as the spring festival. The name spring festival was adopted forty centuries ago after the then emperor Shun, occupied the throne. Festivities last for about 23 days which is probably the longest festival around the world. Spring festival starts in the 12th lunar month of the Chinese calendar around the 28th, and ends in the middle of the 1st lunar month of the following year.
Every year, Chinese New Year falls on a different day in the Gregorian calendar. The New Year Day itself will fall on the 5th of February on the Gregorian calendar. Other Asian countries such as; Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia also take part in the celebrations. It is a time for families to get together and honor ancestors as well as Chinese deities. In China, this is a one of the longest banks holidays and government institutions remain closed.
Chinese cherish their new year; celebration takes 15 days with each day being celebrated according to local tradition. There is a lot of cleaning that goes on within Chinese homesteads, to welcome the New Year. Chinese belief that this cleaning invites good luck and drives away ill fortunes. On New Year`s Eve, families gather to feast and to welcome the new year in style.
The Year of the Pig
Chinese use Zodiac animal signs to give a name to every year and this symbolizes their expectations. The symbols include Rat, Dragon, Rooster, Horse, Monkey, Rabbit, Ox, Sheep, Dog, Tiger, Pig, or Snake. The year 2019 is the year of the pig. Preceding years of the pig were 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, and 2007 and repeats once every 12-years.
As you would expect, a pig is not a very smart animal even in China. It is fat, eats a lot and spends most of its time sleeping like any other pig around the world. However, the Chinese also believe that a pig represents fortune, luck, prosperity, wealth, and honesty. They view it as a calm animal, well-behaved and with no intentions of harming anyone. Additionally, Chinese consider a person born in the year of the pig as friendly, humorous, and peaceful.
Happy Chinese New Year! from Simply Interpreting.