The new year has just begun last Saturday which seems like I’m lying since the new year is always the 1st of January right? Although that might be the new year on the Gregorian calendar when we go off of the Chinese lunar calendar we see that yes the lunar new year has just started.
The Lunar New Year is an Asian celebration that’s primarily celebrated in China but is also celebrated in Vietnam and Korea. The Lunar New Year is the largest celebration in China and usually entails large parties with family and friends that last through the night with fireworks being lit throughout. A big part of the New Year celebration is the dinner with family and friends, The most common foods are traditional Chinese foods like dumplings and spring rolls but they also offer longevity noodles which symbolize a long life. Another thing they do to celebrate is handing out red envelopes filled with money to young kids and teens, this is called Ya Sui Qian.
Every Chinese New Year brings a new zodiac animal for the year. This year’s zodiac animal is not actually an animal but a dragon which symbolizes prosperity and imperial power. Some other examples of animals are Tigers, Monkeys, pigs, and rabbits.
While at our school we did not hear anything about the Lunar New Year we do have a student at our school who did celebrate it Tianluo “Leo” Zhu I wanted to know his thoughts on the new year and he replied “My favorite part of the lunar new year is receiving the red envelopes from family and friends because they contain money” He also said that “In china, it usually last all night”
Happy Lunar New Year we hope for prosperity for all from the newspaper.
