Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year is always celebrated between January 21 to February 20th.  Celebrations typically last for up to two weeks.  During Lunar New Year celebrations people typically celebrate the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar. A lunisolar calendar is a calendar used in many different cultures that incorporates lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the Earth's sky.  

Those who celebrate Lunar New Year consider it the time of the year to reunite with immediate and extended family as well as following many traditions.  Families will decorate windows with red paper cuttings and adorn doors with poems expressing happy wishes for the new year. Shopping for holiday items in open-air markets and cleaning the house are also traditions many follow. The Lunar New Year’s Eve reunion dinner is the highlight that kicks off the holiday, a feast with a spread of symbolic dishes, such as a whole fish representing abundance, that bring good luck and fortune. The fifteenth and final day of the holiday is the Lantern Festival, during which people have tangyuan, or sweet glutinous rice balls, and children carry lanterns around the neighborhood at night to mark the end of the celebration.

To learn more check out the National Museum of Asian Art