Lunar New Year trivia: 55 amazing facts about the Chinese festival

Lunar New Year is essentially Chinese New Year. It is the Chinese festival that celebrates the new year.

Let’s dive into some unknown and facts about this holiday.

1. Chinese New Year is also referred to as Lunar New Year
2. It is the Chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar
3. The festival is usually referred to as the Spring Festival in mainland China
4. And is one of several Lunar New Years in Asia
5. Observances traditionally take place from the evening preceding the first day of the year to the Lantern Festival
6. It is held on the 15th day of the year
7. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February
8. In 2020, the first day of the Chinese New Year will be on Saturday, 25 January, initiating the Year of the Rat
9. Chinese New Year is a major holiday in China
10. It has strongly influenced Lunar new year celebrations of China’s neighbouring cultures
11. Including the Korean New Year (seol), the Tết of Vietnam, and the Losar of Tibet
12. It is also celebrated worldwide in regions and countries with significant Overseas Chinese or Sinophone populations
13. Including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Mauritius
14. As well as many in North America and Europe
15. Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs
16. The festival was traditionally a time to honour deities as well as ancestors
17. Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the New Year vary widely
18. The evening preceding Chinese New Year’s Day is frequently regarded as an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner
19. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly clean their house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good luck
20. Another custom is the decoration of windows and doors with red paper-cuts and couplets
21. Popular themes among these paper-cuts and couplets include that of good fortune or happiness, wealth, and longevity
22. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes
23. For the northern regions of China, dumplings are featured prominently in meals celebrating the festival
24. It often serves as the first meal of the year either at midnight or as breakfast of the first day
25. According to tales and legends, the beginning of the Chinese New Year started with a mythical beast called the Nian during the annual Spring Festival
26. The Nian would eat villagers, especially children in the middle of the night
27. One year, all the villagers decided to go hide from the beast
28. An old man, Yanhuang, appeared before the villagers went into hiding and said that he would stay the night, and would get revenge on the Nian
29. All the villagers thought he was insane
30. The old man put red papers up and set off firecrackers
31. The day after, the villagers came back to their town and saw that nothing had been destroyed
32. They assumed that the old man was a deity who came to save them
33. The villagers then understood that Yanhuang had discovered that the Nian was afraid of the color red and loud noises
34. So the tradition grew that when New Year was approaching, the villagers would wear red clothes, hang red lanterns, and red spring scrolls on windows and doors
35. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian
36. From then on, Nian never came to the village again
37. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk
38. After that, Nian retreated to a nearby mountain
39. The name of the mountain has long been lost over the years
40. There is also a saying that the beast is “Xi”, rather than Nian
41. Spring Festival included New Year’s Eve and New Year
42. Xi is a kind of faint monster, and Nian is not related to the animal beasts in terms of meaning, it is more like a mature harvest
43. There is no record of the beast in the ancient texts
44. It is only in Chinese folklore. The word “Nian” is composed of the words “he” and “Qian”
45. It means that the grain is rich and the harvest is good
46. The farmers review the harvest at the end of the year and are also full of expectations for the coming year
47. According to Chinese historical documents, since the beginning of the era, people have celebrated the harvest in the New Year and welcomed the new folk customs
48. Later, they gradually became an established traditional festival
49. While Spring Festival has since become the official name of Chinese New Year, the Chinese outside mainland China still prefer to call it Lunar New Year
50. “Chinese New Year” is a popular and convenient translation for people of non-Chinese cultural backgrounds
51. Along with the Han Chinese in and outside China, as many as 29 of the 55 ethnic minority groups in China also celebrate Chinese New Year
52. Korea, Brunei, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia celebrate it as an official festival
53. During the festival, people around China will prepare different gourmet for families and guests
54. Influenced by the flourished cultures, foods from different places look and taste totally different
55. Among them, the most well-known ones are dumplings from northern China and Tangyuan from southern China