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To billions of people around the world, the New Year celebrations are over as a few weeks have gone by since we said goodbye to 2016. However, around 1/5 of the world’s population are eagerly awaiting Saturday, January 28, 2017, when they will wave goodbye to the past year and say hello to the Year of the Fire Rooster as they start the several-day celebrations of the Chinese New Year!
Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is an exciting occasion that marks the start of the New Year. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, this celebration begins after the winter solstice on the second new moon and ends fifteen days later on the full moon. To celebrate a year of hard work and look forward to the upcoming year of good fortune, this time of celebration is grandiose and definitely calls for more than one day of festivities as it includes visits with family and friends, gift giving, fireworks, and delicious dishes served only during this time.
Tale of Tradition
When it comes to celebrating holidays, traditions play a critical role in showing people who we are and where we come from. Often, our traditions are pieces of our culture that no one can take away from us as they are rooted in our being.
For Chinese New Year, traditions vary across the regions of China, but some core traditions are prevalent throughout the Chinese celebration. With 4% of the world’s population traveling for this holiday, it is safe to say that the Chinese New Year is all about being together with family and friends.
Traditionally, families join together for a large dinner, called the “reunion dinner” on New Year’s Eve to kick-off the fun festivities that will come in the days to follow. Alongside this, a thorough cleanse of the house is a traditional must, as the Chinese believe you need to clean away any ill fortune from the past to make way for the incoming luck the New Year will present!
Other traditions include giving money in red paper envelopes, watching beautiful fireworks, and decorating homes, streets, and buildings with the main color for the festival – red! Red paper-cuts, red lanterns, red couplets, and other red décor can be seen anywhere the Chinese New Year is celebrated! Coupled with the displays of red are decorations symbolizing good luck and fortune, as well as décor related to roosters as 2017 is the Year of the Rooster.
The Animals and Elements
The Year of the Rooster comes from the Chinese Zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao, which is based on a twelve-year cycle with each year being representative of an animal. The animal signs of the Zodiac are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. The ancient custom used to this day is to name each year after one of the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Also, all zodiac years are paired with one of the following five elements: gold (metal), wood, water, fire, or earth.
The Luck of the New Year
As we say goodbye to the Year of the Monkey and step into the Year of the Fire Rooster, which comes once every 60-year cycle, ILQ shares with you all you need to know about what’s lucky and what’s not so lucky to help you step into your best year yet!
To start, if you were born in the following years of the rooster 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, or you’re thinking of having children in the year 2029, according to Chinese astrology, this will be a very misfortunate year, as the year of one’s birth sign is the unluckiest year. But don’t worry; with some help from China Highlights, we can help you turn your bad luck around!
Listed below are various things that will bring you luck and misfortune this upcoming Chinese New Year:
To learn more about the Chinese culture and participate in the Chinese New Year celebrations, be sure to visit the Shanghai Club at the Shangri-La Hotel, Doha.
From January 27-28 the Shanghai Club will have special Chinese New Year offers that you don't want to miss! Not only will there be a rooster ice carving and a money tree with red envelopes hanging from it, but there are dining deals below we know you'll enjoy!
Shanghai Club
January 27th-January 28th
How will you be celebrating this Chinese New Year? Drop us a line in the comments section below and don't forget to give us a like and a share -- it keeps us going!
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