Chinese New Year includes two weeks of celebration with most activities taking place on just three days: New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and Lantern Festival, which is celebrated on the last day of Chinese New Year. Here's what you should know about the Lantern Festival, including the symbolism of the celebration and which characters to write on your own lantern to wish in Chinese.
What Is the Chinese New Year Lantern Festival?
Every year, on the last day of Chinese New Year, families from Taiwan to China place colorful lanterns outside their homes and launch them into the night sky. Each lantern corresponds to a particular wish the family has for the new year, with the colors having various meanings. For example, sending off a red lantern represents a wish for good fortune, while orange symbolizes money and white symbolizes good health.
There are many stories about why this festival takes places. For example, in one of the origin legends, Emperor Qinshihuang, the first emperor to unite China, held the first Lantern Festival to ask Taiyi, the ancient god of heaven, for health and good weather. In another of these legends, which is rooted in Taoism, the Lantern Festival was first put on to celebrate the birthday of Tianguan, the god of good fortune. Other explanations center around the Jade Emperor, and a maid named Yuan Xiao.
Wish in Chinese: What to Write on Your Lantern
The festival has changed a lot over the years. Simple handheld paper lanterns have been replaced with elaborate colorful lanterns of all shapes and sizes. But the tradition of sending wishes to be granted into the sky has remained. Many revelers enjoy writing riddles or wishes on the lanterns before sending them airborne. Here are some examples of what you may want to write on your own lantern, include the Chinese symbols and pronunciation.
• Onward and upward: 步步高昇 (bù bù gāoshēng)
• Good health: 身體健康 (shēntǐ jiànkāng)
• All wishes come true: 心想事成 (xīn xiǎng shì chén)
• Be happy and carry laughter all the time: 笑口常開 (xiào kǒu cháng kāi)
• Business will grow and get better: 事業蒸蒸日上開 (shìyè zhēng zhēngrì shàngkāi)
• Everything will be lucky and go smoothly: 萬事大吉 (wànshìdàjí)
• Things will happen as you wish: 事事如意、心想事成 (shì shì rúyì, xīn xiǎng shì chéng)
• Pass an entrance exam and get enrolled in a school: 金榜題名 (jīnbǎng tímíng)
• Harmonious family and prosperous life: 家和萬事興 (jiā hé wànshì xīng)
• Work smoothly: 工作順利 (gōngzuò shùnlì)
• Quickly find Mr. Right: 早日找到如意郎君 (zǎorì zhǎodào rúyì láng jūn)
• Make a fortune: 賺錢發大財 (zhuànqián fā dà cái)
Whatever your wish, Chinese New Year can be a wonderful opportunity to set the tone for the year ahead.
Say ‘Happy Lunar New Year' for a more inclusive holiday greeting
Welcome to the Year of the Rat!
Chinese New Year is considerably the most important holiday in China. The celebration date differs every year because it is observed based on the Lunar calendar. In 2022, the holiday begins on January 25 and marks the start of the Year of the Rat, the first animal of the 12 in the Chinese Zodiac to reach the gates of heaven. But the festival is not celebrated exclusively in China.
Although many people in the western hemisphere refer to the festivities as “Chinese New Year,” other Asian countries, including the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam and Tibet, celebrate the occasion as well.
While Chinese call the festival “chūnjié” (春节), Koreans call it Eumnyeok Seollal (음력 설날), Vietnamese celebrate Tết Nguyên Đán (literal translation: the first morning of the first day of the new year) and Tibetans observe the Losar Festival.
There are a few reasons that the Lunar New Year is often called “Chinese New Year” instead. Though many people are unaware, the two are actually slightly different celebrations.
Many Asian countries adopted the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which is why their Lunar New Year celebrations occur at the same time.
Now, the reason why “Chinese New Year” and “Lunar New Year” are often used interchangeably in the western hemisphere has much to do with conventions set by the first Chinese immigrants.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Chinese people were the predominant group of Asians within the Americas, and their holidays and celebrations were noticeably different from the ones practiced by Americans. In order for Westerners to differentiate the Lunar New Year from the Solar New Year, they simply named it after the largest group of people celebrating the occasion.
The inescapable fact is that many Asian countries, including Korea, were largely influenced by Chinese history and culture. As a Korean American, it still somewhat irks me when Westerners ask me “are you celebrating the Chinese New Year?”
For some non-Chinese Asians and Asian Americans, the lack of distinction may feel a tad othering and borne of ignorance. In my experience, this feeling is generally more common among the Asian American diaspora. Although the custom of referring to the celebration as “Chinese New Year” may be hard to break, “Lunar New Year” includes more people in the celebrations, and the more the merrier!
Earlier this week, Global Observer writer Angela Tian reported on some activities Chinese people might do during their New Year celebrations. Below, check out some of the similar and unique Lunar New Year experiences from some other Asian countries, and have a great Lunar New Year!
恭喜发财!
새해 복 많이 받으세요!
Chúc mừng năm mới!
Manigong Bagong Taon!
Celebration in Korea
Although I haven’t formally celebrated New Year with extended family in Korea for almost a decade, I still remember some of the festivities vividly.
The holiday is called Seollal, which generally means “new year.” Eumnyeok Seollal specifically is for the lunar new year. It is a familial celebration over a period of three days: the day before, the day of, and the day after. Seollal has become increasingly expensive to celebrate as it requires traveling back to one’s hometown, preparing extensive gifts and even wearing traditional hanbok.
Although the Lunar New Year has been celebrated with members of the family dressed in hanbok robes, many people now prefer to wear less expensive and more comfortable western-style clothes.
Seollal food typically include variations of tteokguk (rice cake soup) and jeon (pan fried scallion, seafood or meat cakes). Fruit is a common offering, but is typically very expensive to buy in South Korea around celebration time.
The extent of celebrations differs by family. Some go all the way and prepare tables of food for ancestors, to which every one bows deeply.
Sebae, which means “elder worship,” is a form of filial piety performed by younger and older members of the family. Grandchildren may bow to both their parents and their grandparents. The parents bow to their parents, and perhaps also their parents-in-law. While performing the single bow, they say “please receive many blessings/good fortune for the new year.” Often the children are rewarded with pocket money put into silk bags. These are called “bokjumeoni” (복주머니) and literally mean, “pocket of fortune.”
After the bowing rites and a feast, Koreans often play folk games. Three of the more common ones are hwatu, jegichagi and yutnori.
Hwatu, modernized into Go-Stop, is a card game that requires set matching and a fair amount of strategy. Jegichagi involves kicking a footbag with the winner having highest count of kicks before letting the bag drop. Finally, yutnori is a game involving four wooden sticks with unique symbols on them, and tossing determines one’s position/score on a board.
Oftentimes, the gifts that people bring to the celebrations are used as prizes and an incentive to win these games. Although many traditional aspects have been modernized or taken out of Seollal celebrations entirely for some people, the Lunar New Year is still a time where family comes together to wish each other good fortune in the new year.
Celebration in Vietnam
In Vietnam, Lunar New Year is referred to as “Tết Nguyên Đán” (literal meaning: the first morning of the first day of the New Year). It is an official national holiday and although the main celebration spans about three days – the day before, the day of and the day after new year, Vietnamese people usually gets five to seven days off to spend time with their family. Just like Christmas in the U.S., Tết in Vietnam is a travelling season, with people returning to their hometowns to celebrate the occasion with family. Being home is important because Vietnamese culture emphasizes remembering one’s ancestors and strengthening families bonds during this special time of the year.
For decorations, people generally decorate their houses with big pots of flowers or fruits (the equivalence of a Christmas tree). They also use red color papers or cloths and pictures or cutouts of the symbol animal of that year. This year is the Year of the Rat so you can expect to see a lot of cute rat decorations around a Vietnamese neighborhood. On the altar, people like to assemble a set of fruits whose names combine to say “Pray for just enough wealth to spend.” If you’re curious, the fruits are sugar apple, coconut, papaya and mango. Some people can get creative with this process, assembling fruits based on what they wish for.
One of the most popular dishes enjoyed by Vietnamese during the Lunar New Year, beside spring rolls and boiled chicken, is banh tet and banh chung, a cylinder and square cake made of rice, mashed mung beans and pork, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled. A side dish to enjoy with the meal is pickled onions of different styles.
Bánh chưng (left), a rice cake wrapped in banana leaves that are exclusively made and enjoyed during Tet holiday. A Tet feast (right) with dishes to accompany banh chung. Photo courtesy: Nghi Nguyen
In the past, both men and women wear the traditional costume ao dai. Nowadays however, more women wear ao dai than men as men often opt for a more modern look with the Western polo shirt or dress shirt and vest.
On New Year’s Day and the following days, people love to wear red clothing as a sign of good luck for the whole year. It is believed that the first person to come to your house on New Year’s Day will have a significant impact on the fortune of the family for the whole year, therefore some people selected the person beforehand and ask them to come early on New Year’s morning to “break the house” for them. People greet each other on New Year’s Day with wishes praying for good health, good fortune and more wealth while the elders give out lucky money in red envelopes to kids and their juniors.
Celebration in the Philippines
In the Philippines, the Lunar New Year is celebrated mainly by the Chinese-Filipino population. However, the celebration has been picked up by other groups in the country, according to Mariane Cantimbuhan, a Law student at De La Salle University College of Law in Manila. The Lunar New Year is not an official holiday in the Philippines but Cantimbuhan said classes are suspended on this day to pave way for the celebration.
Cantimbuhan said her Chinese-Filipino friends often celebrate the festival by giving out sticky rice cakes placed in red boxes called “Tikoy,” which is a sign of good luck. “They say that when someone gives you that, you must finish it all for good luck and prosperity.”
In addition, people also wear red clothing during the holiday to bring about good luck for the new year. “More often than not, the Chinese and the Filipino-Chinese community complete and serve on their table 13 bountiful fruits, all of which are circular in shape.”
• May you always be surrounded by sunshine in this new year. Happy Chinese New Year!
• Here is wishing you health, wealth, and happiness in this New Year. Happy Chinese New Year of the OX 2022!
• This New Year, may you be blessed with wealth from various sources. Happy Chinese New Year of the OX 2022!
• May this New Year, for you, be made up of all that is best and beautiful. Happy Chinese New Year of the OX 2022!
• Discover new roads to success as you step into another great year.
• Good luck, good health, good cheer and Happy New Year 2021!
• This Lunar New Year may your life hold for you as much variety as the various phases of the moon.
• Hope you are met with desired success at every step you take in the Chinese New Year.
• My heartfelt wishes are with you and your family members throughout this Chinese New Year.
• With each passing moment, let us embrace the New Year with a brighter, more colorful, and more joyous future. Happy New Year!
Time
Decorate paper lanterns and learn more about the tradition behind lanterns and their central role in imparting wishes for a bright future.
Date: Friday, January 17th
Event: Lunar New Year Red Envelope Coloring Event
Location: Oculus Floor/Fulton Curvature
Time
Bring the whole family for a coloring activity. Participants can design and take home their own red evelopes.
Date: Saturday, January 18th
Event: Lunar New Year Paper Workshop
Location: Lunar Event Lounge
Time
Calligraphy: Receive an overview of the fundamentals of traditional Chinese calligraphy and enjoy painting symbols and other iconography such as birth year animals, seasons, greetings, and take home artistic keepsakes on colored rice paper.
Paper Cutting: Learn about the art of papercutting, used during the Lunar New Year to express wishes for wealth, health, and longevity. Take home handmade art pieces for display.
Date: Monday, January 20th
Event: Lunar New Year Music Workshop
Location: Lunar Event Lounge
Time:
Experience a hands-on, small group lesson and demonstration of Chinese flute and lute for kids.
Date: Wednesday, January 22nd
Event: Chinese Business Etiquette Workshop
Location: Lunar Event Lounge
Time
China Institute’s Business Culture & Etiquette Workshops cover topics such as building business relationships, rank and seniority in China, gift giving, banquet protocols and survival language skills. The workshops also introduce Chinese history and ethics, to provide context for understanding the unique way that Chinese conduct business.
Dates: Thursday, January 23rd – Saturday, January 25th
Event: One World Trade Center Spire Lighiting
Date: Friday, January 24th
Event:Lunar New Year Fashion Showcase
Location: Lunar Event Lounge
Time: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Celebrate Lunar New Year with a curated collection of looks and styles from Oculus retailers.
Date: Monday, January 27th
Event: Chinese Fashion Documentary Screening & Panel Discussion
Location: Lunar Event Lounge
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Date: Wednesday, January 29th – Friday, January 31st
Event: Asian Cultural Center's Liu Shiming Sculpture Exhibition
Location: Oculus Floor/East End
Times
A sculpture exhibition by artist Liu Shiming.
Date: Friday, January 31st
Event: Chinese Culture Workshop
Location: Lunar Event Lounge
Time
This engaging, illustrated workshop provides a colorful picture of Chinese culture through its lively holidays, rich in art and literature references, cultural significance and symbolism, and current interpretations.
Date: Saturday, February 1st
Event: NYCCC Lion Dance to Brookfield
Location: Oculus Floor/West Concourse
Time: 1:30 pm to 2:00 pm
Watch a traditional Chinese Lion Dance starting from the Oculus Floor through the West Concourse to Brookfield Place.
When is the 2022 Lunar New Year?
In 2022, the Chinese New Year will be on February 12th, marking the beginning of the year 4716.
Why February?
It's because the new year is always celebrated on the second new moon following the winter solstice, which usually falls January 21 and February 20 on the Gregorian calendar.
The proper festivities will begin on the first day of the first lunar month on the Chinese calendar and continue until the moon is full, or the 15th of the lunar month. In other words, until early March.
If you're in China, you're in luck – people often get a week off, though celebrations last much longer.
What Zodiac Sign is 2022 – and Why Use Zodiac Signs?
You can't talk about the Chinese New Year without also talking about the Chinese zodiac.
According to legend, the Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on New Year's Day, but only twelve showed up.
He named a year after each of the twelve animals – the dog, the pig, the rat, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey and the rooster.
According to the Chinese calendar, February 12, 2022, will be the year of the ox. Prior ox years include 1937, 1949, 1971, 1973, 1985, 1997 and 2009.
In Chinese culture, you are believed to have some of the traits of the zodiac animal whose year you were born in.
For those born in the ox year, this includes reliability, fairness, being conscientious and inspiring confidence in other people.
How Do People Celebrate the Chinese New Year?
The big one is the red envelopes, called hong bao in Mandarin and lai si in Cantonese.
Much of what you've probably seen about the Chinese New Year has to do with these red envelopes – they're the reason why a Chinese New Year greeting card should never be neglected.
Traditionally, these are gifts of money that adults with income given to children who don't have income, though the definition of “children” can also be stretched to include unmarried couples.
That said, you should ideally have an amount that is either a round number or ends in 8, a lucky number in China. Avoid any number that contains 4 (an unlucky number) and absolutely avoid coins.
Other than the hong bao/lai si, other traditions include the new year's dinner, cleaning the house (just not on the first three days of the new year – you'll sweep away the good luck) and getting a haircut.
New year, new beginnings.
Writing Your Chinese New Year Greeting Card
And now, the real question: what do you write on your Chinese New Year greeting card?
The Basics
First things first: a Chinese New Year greeting card is not a thank you note – you can't just write anything you want.
There are certain phrases and greetings that are appropriate for some recipients but not others, some phrases which are considered luckier than others, and some that are downright unlucky.
We'll talk about some key phrases, and the phrases you should avoid (and what to say if someone else slips up and says an unlucky phrase).
But before we get that far, keep in mind that the formal greeting for someone older or respected, nin for ‘you', is different than the common, informal ni.
So, if you were giving a Chinese New Year greeting card to someone older, you would greet them with, “Zhu nin…” (Wish you…) instead of, “Zhu ni'? …” (also means “Wish you…” but is informal or for someone younger).
Greetings and Sayings
While you might start to get slightly bored repeating the same phrases, there are a few key phrases that will almost never fail to make your Chinese friends and neighbors happy. These are:
• Gongxi facai – May you come into a good fortune!
• Jiankang changshou – Live long and prosper!
• Wanshi ruyi – All the best!
• Daji dali – Good Luck!
These four phrases will generally be enough to get you around most social settings for the Chinese New Year, but you can also stay classic and use “Xinnian ha'o” “Guonian ha'o,” or “Xinnian kuaile,” all of which mean, “Happy New Year.”
Just do yourself a favor – if you're not a native speaker, check with your friends or family members to make sure you're using the right version of “Happy New Year.” Preferably before you write it on your Chinese New Year greeting card.
Phrases for Health
Of course, the new year is also about health – a fresh year for fresh, exciting beginnings. Wishing someone good health in the new year is a great way to welcome the festivities.
For this, you can use the phrase, “Shenti' jiankang,” which means “enjoy good health.”
If there are children under 10 of your family and friends, you can also use, “Jingling huopo,” which translates to “a bright and happy spirit.” Essentially, you're wishing them to be active and smart in the new year.
Greetings for Work
Because in the Chinese New Year, you also have the gongsi nian hui, which is meant to celebrate the past year of business and look forward to the next.
It's an occasion. Speeches are made recognizing outstanding employees, there's a program of dancing and singing and a fair chance that, one way or another, you'll get roped into being onstage.
For this, no plain old greetings will do. This is when you'll want to use, “X?nni?n kuaile!” (Happy New year!) In person, you can also use, “Tongshimen, wo gei dajia jingjiu wei women laoban -ganbei!” which means, “Colleagues, I'd like to make a toast to our boss – cheers!”
For your greeting card, you can use, “Caiyuan gua'ngjin,” meaning, “Enter broadly into wealth's source,” or “Gongzuo shunli,” which means, “May your work go smoothly.”
Greetings for Students
For the students in your circle, you'll have a separate set of phrases for them, usually directly related to being a student.
Two easy ones to remember are, “Xuexi jinbu,” which means, “progress in studies,” and “Jinba'ng timing,” which translates to, “Success in the examination,” useful for students with a major exam coming up on the horizon.
Greetings for the Family, and an Unusual Phrase
Then, there's family. Where would the holiday be without them?
Not much of anywhere, because family is central to the Chinese New Year – most people travel to be with their families for the celebration, even great distances.
For family, you can use the four key greetings listed earlier, but you can also use these two family-centric greetings, “Hejia huanle,” which translates to, “Felicity of the whole family,” or “Hejia xingfu,” which means, “Happiness for the whole family.”
Taboos
If your head isn't spinning yet, there are some phrases you should absolutely never do or say. These include:
Fortunately, there are phrases you can say to counteract bad luck, such as, “Sui sui ping an,” which means, “Peace all year round.”
If someone says unlucky words, you can also say, “Tong wu wu ji,” which means, “Children say everything but take no offense,” sort of like saying, “Knock on wood.”
Get the Best Chinese New Year Greeting Card
Of course, all your holiday well wishes start with a great greeting card to write them on. We're here to offer some good ideas, whatever you celebrate.