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 occurs at the end of January or the first 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 would imagine, in China there will be lots of fireworks all day and night surrounding their holiday, or at least that is how it was in the past. Now there is a ban on fireworks, which is being done to improve the air quality. Honestly, that will be a hard ban to enforce!
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 new year is called the year of the dog, and gou is how you say dog in Chinese. I will display a paper cut-out symbol for the year of the dog for you to enjoy.
Happy Spring Festival to all of my Chinese friends!