In China, by far the largest holiday is the Lunar New Year, called the Spring Festival or Chun Jie in Chinese. It is based on the moon, so it doesn’t happen on the same day each year. It usually occurs at the end of January or the beginning of February. Some of the main customs surrounding Chun Jie are cleaning your home, eating jaozi (dumplings), and parents giving a child a red envelope full of money. A couple of the lesser known traditions involve getting a haircut and taking a shower to wash away anything bad. As you can imagine, in China there will be lots of fireworks all day and night surrounding the holiday.
Many people receive an extended vacation to celebrate this huge holiday. In fact, it is known as the largest annual migration of people when all of the city workers travel back to their rural hometowns to visit their families.
This year is called the year of the goat. “Shanyang” is how you say goat in Chinese. I will display a beautiful symbol for the year of the goat for you to enjoy. The Lunar New Year falls on 02/19 for 2015!
Happy Spring Festival to all of my Chinese friends!