Who is celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Snake and how?

In many Asian nations and their eponymous diasporas all over the world, the Lunar New Year or the Chinese New Year is a significant holiday.

The Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival, is a roughly two-week celebration marking the start of the Chinese calendar year, which falls on Wednesday this year.

Each Chinese New Year revolves around a 12-year cycle and is associated with an animal in the Chinese zodiac, which is then paired with any one of the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth.

The wood snake’s year began this new year.

While its namesake is used to refer to Chinese customs in countries like Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore, other countries like Vietnam and the Korean Peninsula have entirely different names for their Lunar New Year celebrations.

How is the Chinese New Year celebrated?

In order to clear any negative luck from the previous year, households are thoroughly cleaned the days leading up to the new year.

This cleaning is thought to bring good fortune for the upcoming year. Decorations also go up, including lanterns, paper cuttings and fresh paint – all in a bright red colour, which invites good luck as well.

On the eve of the new year, family reunion dinners are held.

Homes are filled with people coming home with gifts, oranges, and red envelopes filled with small amounts of money, known as ang pao or hongbao, for the young people as the new year begins.

Greetings and well wishes are exchanged, including the more common Chinese-language phrases Gong Xi Fa Cai, and Xin Nian Kuai Le, which roughly translate to happiness, peace and prosperity for the upcoming days.

According to Yvonne Goh, a Malaysian of Chinese descent, some people avoid sweeping their homes or cutting their hair and nails in the first few days out of fear of losing good fortune brought on by visiting New Year’s snitchs.

The celebrations feature lion dances that traditionally bring good fortune and ward off evil spirits in homes, businesses, and places of employment.

The first day of the Chinese New Year was traditionally reserved for daughters to visit their parents, while married women were typically expected to spend the day with their in-laws.

The fourth and fifth days are dedicated to the God of Wealth, while the third day is anticipated to be quieter and restful. People reportedly get rid of old or unneeded items on the sixth day of the festivities and resume employment.

On the seventh day, China’s mother goddess Nuwa is believed to have created humans.

Koreans celebrate ‘ Seollal’, Vietnamese mark ‘ Tet ‘

The Korean New Year (Seollal) and the Vietnamese New Year (Tet) are also celebrated, in their own unique ways.

Three days of celebrations traditionally center on family gatherings, Korean traditional food, and rituals. For South and North Koreans alike, this will be the year of the green snake, believed to bring transformation, growth and development.

The sebae, a deep bow of respect performed by younger generations to their elders as a way to wish them a happy new year, is one of the more important aspects of the Korean festivities.

Traditional hanbok costumes are typically worn during the sebae. Elders give younger people cash in the form of sebaetdon, or sebaetdon, as gifts.

Worshipping ancestors, known as charye, is also an important part of the new year. Deep bows are made as a sign of respect and food is distributed among the ancestors on a table.

Other dishes like Korean dumplings and rice cake soup, or tteokguk, are also served alongside them. The tteokguk occupies a special place on the dining table because it is only served once per year, according to theories that eating it would make a person one year older.

Instead of the traditional 15 days of the Chinese New Year, Tet, or Tet Nguyen Dan, is celebrated over three days.

Offices and businesses shut down for seven to nine days during Tet, one of Vietnam’s most significant holidays, during which time it lasts.

Prioritizing resting before the new year’s ring, spending time with family, and honoring ancestors, praying to God, and doing so in Vietnamese culture.

Before Tet, Vietnamese people observe Ong Cong, the day of the Kitchen God, a deity believed to govern the family’s affairs. On this day, family altars to ancestors are cleaned, new offerings are put out, and incense is burned.

Wrapping of the Chung cake, also called the Tet cake, cleaning and decorating homes with kumquats, peach blossoms and apricot blossoms are also an integral part of preparations.

And families make offerings to the graves of their ancestors the day before Tet, and families prepare five fruit trays to be strewn out at the altar for the deceased.

The paternal side of the family typically has its celebrations on the first day, while the maternal side typically has the second day.

With the third day of the new year dedicated to honoring teachers, Vietnamese culture also values teachers highly.

Tibet’s ‘ Losar ‘ and Mongolia’s ‘ Tsagaan Sar ‘

Losar, which is the Tibetan monastic calendar’s new year, is observed on the same day as the Chinese New Year in Tibet and other parts of India with significant Tibetan Buddhist communities.

However, the dates are slightly different, with this year’s Losar set to be marked on February 28 and extending over a period of 15 days.

Traditional and religious rituals in monasteries and temples, cultural celebrations, and family gatherings over shared meals and presents are frequently used as observance of Losar.

According to the Mongolian lunisolar calendar, Mongolia will observe its new year, Tsagaan Sar, on March 1.

Source: Aljazeera