Lunar New Year (China)

What: The Lunar New Year or Spring Fes­ti­val is the biggest and bright­est fes­ti­val in Chi­na as fam­i­lies from across the entire region come togeth­er to cel­e­brate the Chi­nese New Year over the course of almost 23 days.

Com­bin­ing both mod­ern and tra­di­tion­al New Year’s Eve cel­e­bra­tions, the cel­e­bra­tions begin with an ini­tial sweep­ing of the house, streets and tombs of fam­i­ly mem­bers to rid the com­ing New Year of any bad luck that may be lin­ger­ing, before fam­i­lies will dec­o­rate their hous­es and the streets with hang­ing red lanterns and dec­o­ra­tions and then exchanged red cou­plets, envelopes and paper mes­sages – which always fea­ture wish­es for good for­tune and hap­pi­ness for the com­ing year.

On the main day of the fes­ti­val, the Lunar New Year’s Eve, the world’s great­est migra­tion and the spring trav­el rush will see some 200 mil­lion indi­vid­u­als from all across Chi­na race against time to make it back to their fam­i­lies to take part in the tra­di­tion­al reunion din­ner.

With the din­ner giv­ing fam­i­lies a chance to not just get togeth­er to cel­e­brate, but also almost always indulge in the eat­ing of dumplings before sit­ting down to watch the New Year Gala – the most watched tele­vi­sion show around the world – and then head­ing into the streets to ring in the New Year with a fire­work dis­play, set off fire­works and fire­crack­ers to chase away bad luck and of course wit­ness a series of parades that con­tin­ue to take place over the rest of the fes­ti­val fea­tur­ing lions, drag­on dances and the promi­nent ani­mal derived from the zodi­ac cal­en­dar that sym­bol­is­es the cur­rent year ahead.

When: The Lunar Fes­ti­val has no fixed date and varies accord­ing to the Chi­nese Lunar Fes­ti­val – but expect it to last for around 23 days, with 7 days before­hand and 15 days after the New Years Cel­e­bra­tion and to take place between the 20^th of Jan­u­ary and 21^st of Feb­ru­ary.

Where: The Lunar New Year is cel­e­brat­ed all around the world and in par­tic­u­lar­ly across Chi­na, with the best place to wit­ness the fes­ti­val in our opin­ion being Bei­jing – which pro­vides enough enter­tain­ment with promi­nent Tem­ple Fairs (Long­tan and Dit­ian are par­tic­u­lar good), the spring fes­ti­val Gala and a series of unmatched fire works (tak­ing place at the Chi­na Mil­len­ni­um Mon­u­ment) and parades tak­ing place across the fes­ti­val.

Alter­na­tive­ly, for a more unique expe­ri­ence you can base your­self in Bei­jing and head to the great wall, where fur­ther fire work shows take place giv­ing you an oppor­tu­ni­ty to ring tin the New Year with both a bit of exer­cise and on top of the worlds great­est won­ders.

 Dura­tion: The fes­ti­val lasts for 15 days offi­cial­ly, with the week before spend ded­i­cat­ing for prepa­ra­tions for the fes­ti­val – which includes the clean­ing and sweep­ing of hous­es, the dec­o­rat­ing of hous­es and streets with red lanters and the exchang­ing of red envelops, let­ters and cou­plets, is a time ded­i­cat­ed to eat­ing and drink­ing and releas­ing fire­crack­ers and is con­sid­ered the most fes­tive time of the fes­ti­val.

New Years Eve begins on the last of these sev­en days and will see the Annu­al reunion din­ner tak­ing place in homes or restau­rants at mid-after­noon – with the New Years Eve Gala begin­ning its broad­cast at 8pm Sharp and last­ing until after Mid­night – at which point the grand fire­work cer­e­mo­ny will take place in Bei­jing fol­lowed by hours of fire­crack­ers being release to ring in the New Year.

From Here the offi­cial 15 New Years fes­ti­val will begin, with the first three days a pub­lic hol­i­day for the work­ers and each day hav­ing a ded­i­cat­ed theme, with the fourth and fif­teenth day also being of sig­nif­i­cant impor­tant dur­ing the fes­ti­val:

- The first day is a time to vis­it rel­a­tives and hon­our the elder­ly fam­i­ly mem­bers and vis­it extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers – with this day also see­ing the fur­ther release of fire­works and fire­crack­ers and often see­ing the parad­ing of lions and drag­ons in the street.

- The Sec­ond day is focused on vis­it­ing friends and requires mar­ried women to vis­it their birth par­ents bring­ing gifts of fruit, veg­eta­bles and cakes.

- The third day is con­sid­ered a day of reflec­tion, where it is viewed as unlucky to see any­one and will often see indi­vid­u­als burn­ing their sins away on paper and vis­it­ing tem­ples.

- The fourth day see’s the return to busi­ness with shops and stores open­ing around the coun­try and often see­ing shop­pers flock to stores for the lat­est dis­counts of bar­gains.

- On the fif­teenth day, which is con­sid­ered the Lantern Fes­ti­val, the pre­vi­ous nine days – which are ded­i­cat­ed to reflec­tion – will come to a head and the Lunar New year cel­e­bra­tions will close with anoth­er reunion din­ner – always fea­tur­ing dumplings – and the release of fur­ther fire­crack­ers and the light­ing of can­dles, with the day also being the equiv­a­lent of valen­tines day in the west as sin­gle females will seek out a part­ner and offer their phone num­bers to would be suit­ors.

Tick­ets: There are no tick­ets required to wit­ness the lunar day cel­e­bra­tions or watch the fire­works if attend­ing in a pub­lic space – but it is high­ly advised to buy tick­ets for trav­el well in advance owing to the migra­tion num­bers, and to book accom­mo­da­tion and a restau­rant spot and a spot at the World Sum­mit Wing for fire­work view­ing in advance if want­i­ng to cel­e­brate the reunion meal and fes­ti­val with friends and fam­i­ly in Bei­jing.

Need to Know:  Be aware of the great migra­tion and spring trav­el rush tak­ing place when vis­it­ing or plan­ning to attend the Lunar New year cel­e­bra­tions – train tick­ets will book up in months in advance and com­mut­ing in Chi­na will be more packed and crowd­ed than usu­al – so it’s rec­om­mend­ed to plan well in advance for trav­el and accom­mo­da­tion.

Also be warned that the three days at the start of the hol­i­day are pub­lic hol­i­days for all work­ers, so if plan­ning to go shop­ping, on tours or vis­it enter­tain­ment com­plex­es – chances are they’ll be closed as Chi­nese Work­ers enjoy time with their fam­i­ly and a rest.

It is also required to wear bright clothes (nor­mal­ly red) on the days of the fes­ti­val and avoid wear­ing black or white – which are con­sid­ered bad luck and a sign of morn­ing dur­ing the fes­ti­val, it’s also high­ly rec­om­mend­ed to get some­where high if vis­it­ing Bei­jing and watch­ing the fire­works (the atmos­phere Bar on the 80th floor of the Chi­na World Sum­mit Wing is usu­al­ly tout­ed as the best spot) as not only does the mil­len­ni­um square get crowd­ed but chances are you may miss some of the action if watch­ing from the street lev­el.