For communities that follow the lunar calendar, New Year’s Day changes each year depending on the cycles of the moon. This year, Lunar New Year will be celebrated Feb. 17 to March 3.
Lunar New Year is observed by millions of people worldwide, particularly across countries in east and southeast Asia and within global diaspora communities.
Lunar New Year is also called Chinese New Year. In China, where the holiday is called the Spring Festival, it is marked by a weeklong public holiday and mass travel for family reunions.
Cultures around the world use fireworks to ring in the new year. This tradition has its roots in China, where fireworks were developed.
Gunpowder was invented in China around the 10th century. Firecrackers and fireworks, made with gunpowder, have been an important part of Lunar New Year celebrations for centuries, symbolizing the welcoming of good fortune and the warding off of bad luck.
The celebration traditionally lasts 15 days, making it one of the most significant and extended holidays of the year for those who observe — comparable in meaning to the holidays celebrated between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day in the United States.
On Lunar New Year’s Eve, families often gather for a large meal that emphasizes togetherness, gratitude and renewal.
Li Luo is an assistant professor of accounting at Hartwick College. Her husband, Weian Wang, is an assistant professor in the departments of Business Administration and Accounting and Computer and Information Science at Hartwick.
They were both born in China and met in Cincinnati, Ohio, in graduate school. Their hometowns are very far apart — Luo is from the Si Chuan province in the southwestern part of China. Wang is from the Shan Dong province, which is in northeastern China.
“We usually have a big family dinner together,” Luo said, “with fish, symbolizing prosperity; dumplings, symbolizing wealth; chicken, symbolizing luck; and other dishes on the table.”
“And for the kids, after the dinner, each of them will get a hongbao, ‘lucky pocket money,’ in a red envelope, meaning good luck, health and the warding off of evil spirits,” she said.
Luo and Wang are members of the First United Methodist Church of Oneonta. They also celebrate Christmas like Westerns do, with a traditional Christmas tree.
“Chinese New Year marks not only the change of the zodiac, but the change of the heavenly stems and earthly branches,” Luo said. “We prefer to call it Chinese New Year because it goes beyond the commonly-known animal zodiac system and incorporates other cultural and religious elements from ancient Chinese culture.”
Sallie Han, SUNY Oneonta anthropology professor, has organized an Asian Lunar New Year celebration this semester for students and staff that will incorporate some of her memories of Korean New Year — known as Seollal — plus Vietnamese New Year — known as Tet — and Chinese New Year traditions.
“One of the joyful aspects of my position as director of the Center for Racial Justice and Inclusive Excellence is promoting cultural understanding and cultural experiences,” she said.
Han hopes to invite the community in the future. She is working with the student cooking club to design a menu of Chinese dumplings, longevity noodles and Vietnamese spring rolls, she said, with vegetarian and meat options.
The Center for Racial Justice and Inclusive Excellence has partnered with the Office of Global Education and SUNY Oneonta Heritage Language Institute, which recognizes that some students are bilingual.
Ho Hon Leung is a professor of sociology at SUNY Oneonta who was born and raised in Hong Kong. Leung will be offering mini language lessons of customary greetings on campus this year as part of the festivities.
“May many gifts and blessings come to you in the new year,” is a greeting Koreans use, Han said.
Symbolism
Gangliu Wang, of Boston, is an expert on the ancient customs and symbolism surrounding Chinese New Year.
She worked for the Boston’s Children Museum, which was “among the first American institutions to introduce Chinese New Year celebrations,” she said.
“Most East Asian countries — China, South and North Korea, Vietnam and Mongolia — celebrate Lunar New Year,” she said.
The differences between how Americans celebrate their new year and how Chinese communities honor their own traditions are worth noting.
From red envelopes and decorations to red dragon parades, red is a prominent color throughout Lunar New Year celebrations. Red is associated with good luck, vitality and happiness in Chinese culture.
It is common to hang red posters with the symbol “fu” for good fortune upside down, indicating that good luck has already arrived.
In Chinese culture, blood symbolizes life. Red is also a bold color believed to keep away evil spirits.
Ancient Chinese people decorated their homes with red trimmings, burned bamboo and beat the dried bamboo sticks, all designed to scare off evil spirits. The bright colors and lights eventually became integrated into the modern New Year celebration.
In Western cultures, red is often associated with blood. Blood can symbolize death. For example, Catholic priests wear red robes on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. For Christians, this is a reminder that Jesus died on the cross.
In contrast, a bride in China may wear a red gown to her wedding. At Lunar New Year, Chinese observers of the holiday wear red clothing.
Americans traditionally wear black to funerals. Many American brides wear white gowns. In China, it’s the reserve — white clothes are for funerals and houses are draped in white fabric when a relative dies, Wang said.
The new year represents a new beginning. Part of the preparation for the lunar new year is to clean your house, pay off debts, settle disagreements to help start off the new year with a clean slate.
Because there are more than 1 billion Chinese people in the world, travel during the six-week new year period is considered the “heaviest human migration” in the world as the Chinese gather as a families, Wang said.
Chinese New Year also entails specific rituals. Conventional preparations include shopping for new clothes and hanging red paper scrolls that contain wishes for such things as happiness and wealth.
Schools in China are generally closed for two weeks to one month for winter vacation in February and March. Chinese workers have vacation time at this time to accommodate travel and family reunions.
Foods and traditions differ by region.
Dumplings are not part of Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, Leung said.
Gangliu, however, comes from southern China. There, dumplings are shaped liked gold or silver nuggets from ancient China and are about the same size, Wang said. Some are stuffed with meat and boiled. Her mother made sweet, deep-fried dumplings that were crunchy instead of soft, boiled dumplings.
The year of the horse
Chinese New Year is believed to have originated more than 3,000 years ago during the Shang Dynasty. The holiday began as a way of celebrating the new beginnings of the spring planting season.
Legend holds that Emperor Huangdi invented the lunar-solar Chinese calendar in 2637 B.C.
2026 is the year of the horse. Each year in the Chinese calendar is represented by one of a dozen zodiac animals: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
“The horse symbolizes energy and power,” Leung said.
Prosperity is a recurring theme in Chinese culture, and Wang said that Chinese families wish each other prosperity every new year. During the year of the horse, they have a greeting that wishes a family member’s wealth grows by “leaps and bounds.”