The city has hosted a Chinese New Year celebration since the Gold Rush era of the 1860s, a period of large-scale Chinese immigration to the region. In 1996, China instituted a weeklong vacation during the holiday-now officially called Spring Festival-giving people the opportunity to travel home and to celebrate the new year.ĭid you know? San Francisco, California, claims its Chinese New Year parade is the biggest celebration of its kind outside of Asia. It was the occasion to celebrate the harvest and worship the gods and ask for good harvests in times to come,' explains Yong Chen, a scholar in Asian American Studies.īeginning in 1949, under the rule of Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong, the government forbade celebration of the traditional Chinese New Year and followed the Gregorian calendar.īut by the end of the 20th century, Chinese leaders were more willing to accept the tradition. “This holiday has ancient roots in China as an agricultural society. Under Emperor Wu of Han (140–87 B.C.), the tradition of carrying out rituals on the first day of the Chinese calendar year began. ChinaĬhinese New Year is thought to date back to the Shang Dynasty in the 14th century B.C. Other foods symbolize prosperity, abundance and good luck. Foods made from glutinous rice are commonly eaten, as these foods represent togetherness.

Some households hold rituals to offer food and paper icons to ancestors. Others post red paper and banners inscribed with calligraphy messages of good health and fortune in front of, and inside, homes. Elders give out envelopes containing money to children. Cleaning is also meant to open space for good will and good luck. In preparation for the Lunar New Year, houses are thoroughly cleaned to rid them of inauspicious spirits, which might have collected during the old year. (Vietnam and China share 10 of the zodiac calendar’s 12 signs, but the Vietnamese honor the cat instead of the rabbit, and the buffalo instead of the ox.) Lunar New Year Foods and TraditionsĮach culture celebrates the Lunar New Year differently with various foods and traditions that symbolize prosperity, abundance and togetherness. The year of the rabbit last came up in 2011. The year 2023 is slated to be the year of the rabbit. Each year is associated with an animal that corresponds to an element. In addition to the animals, five elements of earth, water, fire, wood and metal are also mapped onto the traditional lunar calendar. The 12 zodiac animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

Each year in the Lunar calendar is represented by one of 12 zodiac animals included in the cycle of 12 stations or “signs” along the apparent path of the sun through the cosmos.

Lunar new year calendar