Chinese New Year 2023 promises to be a very special New Year celebration for China! The 2020 new year festivities were dampened by the outbreak of coronavirus. 2021 was comparatively low-key. The new year of the ‘Water Tiger’ 2022 was also somewhat lowkey, But we reckon Chinese New Year 2023 – the Year of the Water Rabbit is going to be celebrated and enjoyed with even more enthusiasm than usual!
Learn more about how to celebrate the Chinese new year: list of things you should and should not do!
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1. Chinese New Year’s Day is Sunday January 22 2023
This Chinese New Year 2023 is the Year of the Water Rabbit. Year of the Rabbit and the date of the start of Chinese New Year, which depends on the Chinese Lunar calendar, in 2023 will be Sunday 22 January, commencing the Year of the Rabbit. Specifically, 2023 is the Year of the Water Rabbit. – Will it be a lucky for you according to your Chinese zodiac sign? (If for any reason you don’t set much store in Chinese astrology you’ll find plenty of useful information here on other traditional Chinese ‘Good-Luck’ traditions HERE and a forthcoming potted guide to Feng Shui being written by our Chief Editor Barrie – who was actually a Feng Shui consultant in Britain before coming to China! ( We sh*t you not ! )Barrie here, with what I think is quite an important update.. That is.. if you set any store on Feng Shui.. Which I do.. ( Little known fact: I was, from time to time, a Feng Shui consultant in Britain.. England, mostly friends and family, sometimes business associates who asked for advice.. But yes, also, occasionally – ‘paid for my services’.. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/BestChinaInfo and follow me on Twitter at: @BeehiveChina – I might be making a ‘Feng Shui’ Special to celebrate this coming Chinese New Year!— Barrie V (Barrie VVeiss)
2.Chinese New Year is the longest festival celebrated in China, the festivities go on for 15 days!
Why? Chinese New Year day is the first day of the first lunar month, the day of the new moon, and 15 days later, the first full moon day of the new Chinese year. This is also a well-loved traditional Chinese festival called lantern festival; a festival of reunion and also a day that marks the culmination of new year celebrations. Chinese believe the first 15 days of a year are crucial to help welcome, generate and gather all possible good luck to bring good fortune to the house and make the year ahead as fortunate as possible.
3. Why is Chinese New Year not January 1st ?
Well, Chinese New Year is also called ‘chūn jié’; (pronounced: ‘twen jeeyeah’) or Lunar New Year festival. It marks the first day of first lunar month of the traditional Chinese lunar year. You can easily convert Gregorian date to Chinese lunar date to see how the Chinese New Year changes every year. Below is an illustration of how Chinese lunar days varying according to Gregorian calendar using 2021 Feb as an example.
4. History of Chinese New Year goes back over 4000 years.
Chinese New Year ‘s exact origin is too ancient to be recorded and accompanied with various myths and tales. Naturally, it would have begun much the same as in ancient Britain and Europe before the advent of ‘churches’; ancient Chinese peoples held rituals to celebrate natural cycles, honor gods and ancestors at the beginning of every natural cycle. (Interestingly there is a direct correspondence with ancient British and European lunar cycle festivals)
5. Interesting Origin myth of Chinese New Year for kids: The Tale of fighting Monster “Nian——年”.
Cutting a long story short: “Once upon a time in the ancient far away lands of China, there was a terrible and ferocious beast called: “Nian”. (年， pronounced: ‘Neeyen’) Nian came out from the dark depths of the deep sea to feed on human beings on the last day at midnight every year. Villagers locked their doors before sunset, and prepared a big meal. Families sat together and prayed for the protection of their ancestors’ blessings to survive Nian’s hunt.
6. Chinese also call the Chinese New Year Festival “Guo Nian”, (过年，pronounced: ‘guwor neeyen) literally means: “Survive Nian”.
7. Each Chinese lunar year has a Chinese Zodiac Animal
But why? Going back to the Chinese New Year origin story of Nian; Each year, there was a brave animal which came to help the people fight against the monster Nian, so every year was dedicated to that animal in honor of its braveness. There were twelve animals in total involved in the battle with monster Nian before it was defeated forever. The Rat joined the war in first year, then the next year it was the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and finally the pig. Thus, the 12 zodiac animals became embedded in Chinese astrology, and to this day every year is associated with one of these heroic helpers – 2021 being the year of the Ox, 2022 being the year of the Tiger.
8. Chinese lunar new year happens around end of Jan or start of Feb on Gregorian calendar every year.
Quite often, Chinese lunar calendar days are about one month after the Gregorian calendar days.9. Chinese New Year creates the biggest human migration in the world，spring festival travel rush, also called：”chūn yùn”.
Chun Yun, (春运，pronounced:’twen yeun’ ) “spring transport”, goes on for around 40 days – before and after Chinese new year, a mammoth travel rush created by the world most populous nation all returning home to reunite with family for China’s biggest annual festival. ‘Xin Nian’ is Chinese for New Year – pronounced ‘shin neeyan’, ‘Xin Nian Kuai le‘ pronounced ‘shin neeyan kwai ler’, means Happy New Year!
- In 2019 new year Chun Yun, nearly 3 billion trips made.
- In 2020 new year Chun Yun, a total of 283 million trips were made, clearly, a huge drop – affected by the breakout of novel coronavirus.
10. While Public holidays for Chinese New Year are 7 days. Individual small business owners may take a 15-day festival break.
Almost all main Chinese businesses stop serving during the 7-day public holiday. Banks, stated-owned companies and most common employees will reopen right back after the official public holiday. Individual business such as some Chinese restaurants and small businesses owners like to enjoy the 15-day gap. This of course is personal choice.14. Chinese New Year preparation costs more money than you think!
China and the Chinese people always have more need to spend money approaching the Chinese new year period, buying gifts and treats for family and friends, and for themselves! And this is not talking about buying ‘red spring couplets’ and red lanterns for New Year home decoration, that’s the same as Christmas trees and baubles at Christmas time. These are common and normal.So, what makes Chinese New Year most costly for Chinese people?
- Prepare ‘Hong Bao’ （红包） – pronounced hong bow – as in ship’s bow. Red Envelopes filled with cash for kids, not just theirs, but also close relatives. Though nowadays, it’s mostly done via Alipay and WeChat electronic transfer. Did you know China is ALREADY a largely ‘cashless’ society?
- Chinese households will stock up enough food, drinks, and feast making materials for 7-15 days. This is completely necessary and essential when most people are going to stay home and feast for half a month while all business closed in this country in the meantime!
- If you have and dis-functional devices, broken furniture, cluttered room and blocked drains, you must have them fixed, replaced, and dealt with before the Chinese new year eve and this is considered a beneficial and lucky thing to do and very necessary.
- Clean and ready your house for the new year’s good fortune！
15. Celebrate Chinese New Year and bring good luck: dos and don’ts!
There are many taboos during Chinese New Year, collecting and not damaging your new year good luck, here is 10 things you should not do during Chinese New Year 2022: Don’t do laundry, cleaning, and sweeping. Don’t do any sewing, stitching, patching, or repairing and fixing things.Learn more about how to celebrate the Chinese new year: list of things you should and should not do!
Barrie here, with what I think is quite an important update.. That is.. if you set any store on Feng Shui.. Which I do.. ( Little known fact: I was, from time to time, a Feng Shui consultant in Britain.. England, mostly friends and family, sometimes business associates who asked for advice.. But yes, also, occasionally – ‘paid for my services’.. – subscribe to our YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/BestChinaInfo and follow me on Twitter at: @BeehiveChina— Barrie V (Barrie VVeiss)
More facts coming soon!
Great info! Love this website. Thank-you!