Chinese New Year Defined:
Just what is Chinese New Year? There's actually a lot more to it than lion dances and firecrackers, although these two pieces of tradition are integral and more visible, Chinese New Year to China is like Christmas to the West. In essence, Chinese New Year is spending time with family, gift giving and, the all important, food-fest.
While Americans, if we're lucky may get Christmas Eve day and Christmas Day off, and Europeans may take a whole week holiday, Chinese New Year festivities officially last for fifteen days. Businesses and factories usually only take about one week off.

Just how do the Chinese people spend time during the fifteen days of celebration? Find out by reading the Chinese New Year Traditional Calendar of Events.


When is Chinese New Year?
This year, 2007, New Year's Day falls on Sunday, February 18. Officially, the seven days from February 18 through Saturday, February 24, are holidays. Employees will work on Saturday, February 17 and Sunday, February 25 to achieve the straight seven-day holiday. This means that offices and factories are closed and shops and banks may have limited hours. But generally, aside from New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, most everything and certainly tourist sites, are open.
Still have questions about openings and closings? Read answers to those questions about Traveling During Chinese New Year.


History of Chinese New Year:
Chinese New Year celebrations have their origin with end-of-harvest celebrations when people would offer thanks to gods for good harvests and entreaty for a good crop in the following year. Although they varied according to the different calendars used, the customs were formalized under Han Dynasty (206BC-AD 25) rule.
Varied festivals around god worship, sacrifice and celebration held at the end of the winter season and at the beginning of the spring were unified under the Han Dynasty rulers and consolidated, with their adoption of the formal Taichu calendar, to the first day of the first lunar month. During the economically prosperous and politically stable Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), celebrations around the New Year blossomed. Traditional customs around superstitions and worship gradually became means for people simply to celebrate and enjoy time with their families.


This Year, 2007, the Year of the Boar (Pig):
2007 brings us the Year of the Red Fire Pig ending a twelve-year cycle on the Chinese calendar. Supposedly, Pig Years are playful and fun but according to the Nation's 2007 Outlook the world might be in for a tough year. If you'd like to look up your specific forecast, check out this astrology site.

What's Your Sign? Chinese Zodiac:
The Lunar Calendar
Lunar Years:
A lunar year is made up of twelve months with twenty-nine and a half days in each month. Every two and a half months an additional month is added creating a lunar leap year. The beginning of each lunar month is marked by the New Moon on a Western calendar.