As Americans are hyping up for the new year with the promise of reinventing themselves, Chinese families on the other side of the globe are bustling to prepare themselves and their homes to welcome new fortune that they hope will stay in their lives for the year.

This year, Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year begins on January 29, 2025, lasting fifteen days. The day of the celebration often varies as people follow the traditional lunar calendar, which is based on the ever-changing moon phases.

It is a holiday deeply rooted in Chinese culture with traditions that have lasted for several centuries. 

Children don’t go to school for the next few days and adults are meant to spend time with their families. Entire businesses will close to celebrate the new year.

The year 2025 is the year of the snake, the sixth animal on the Chinese zodiac. According to Chinese stories, the order of the animals were determined by a swimming race in the heavens. 

People born in the year of the snake are associated with elegance and charm, often viewed as the most charismatic of the zodiac signs.

Although New Years for Americans typically lasts for the night, Lunar New Year lasts for fifteen days.

Adults and children alike are decked out in red and usher Choi Sun (or Cai Shen in mandarin), into their homes, hoping that he will stay with them through the entire celebration, thus blessing them with good fortune.

The origins of the holiday are deeply rooted in legends. 

Thousands of years ago, a monster named Nian would attack villagers at the beginning of new year. It was afraid of bright red colors and loud noises, so these customs were adopted.

Over the centuries, Lunar New Year celebrations haven’t changed much and have always been seen as turning the page and welcoming a new year.

Celebrations already begin before the new year. The Lunar New Year fair is an annual flower market held a week before New Years. 

Flowers are Lunar New Year favorites, as they symbolize prosperity and many other things that vary with different types of flowers sold in stands, made with bamboo.

On the eve of Lunar, families gather together, often traveling many miles to welcome the new years with family. These gatherings are often quite large and even the most distantly related families are invited. 

Once a year, people will go back to their hometowns to share a meal with their families. Family has always been deeply embedded in Chinese culture and Lunar New Year is no exception.

People will often travel from far away just to make it to this gathering. Centuries ago, a village was essentially a family. It was only in recent generations that people would stray from their hometowns and travel in search of better opportunities.

The tables would be loaded with mouthwatering dishes, golden-brown roast duck, steaming mounds of noodles, bubbling bowls of hot pot, plates after plates of meat, finishing with a dessert of glutinous rice balls with sweet black sesame paste in the center. 

Different foods symbolize different things: noodles promise longevity, dumplings are seen as “pockets of wealth”, and glutinous rice balls served at the end of the meal symbolize togetherness.

During times of poverty, Lunar New Year was often the only time the tables would have meat. Children will also get new clothes, dressed head to toe in red.

After the meal, the children and the women will go to the kitchen to prepare traditional Chinese new year snacks such as daikon cakes, nian gao – a chinese new year sweet rice cake – and yao gok – cantonese sweet fried dumplings.

People prepare them beforehand to fry as the celebration continues. 

Once the work in the kitchen is done, people will gather outside and share tea as they prepare to greet the new year. At midnight, people will gather outside as children and adults alike set fireworks.

Traditionally, daughters celebrate with their husband’s families. In some parts of China, daughters will visit their families on the day after New Year.

On the day of New Years, people will often travel to familial shrines to pay their respects to their ancestors. It is customary for families to visit ancestral graves, burning incense, leaving food offerings, and cleaning their graves.

On this particular day, people will not eat any meat in tribute to their Buddhist roots, as Buddhist monks will not kill another living being to eat.

The first day is when the festivities truly begin, as families put up red good luck charms all over their homes to ward off any passing spirits and direct Choi Sun, the god of wealth, into their homes.

All day long, people blast traditional New Year songs in their homes while on the streets dragon dances parades down the streets littered with red pumpkin shells. 

Kung-fu students will put on performances by using poles to sweep the dragon through the air, moving together to give the dragon its graceful flow. 

Coordination is key in these performances and performers often have to train several years in preparation, as it is considered an honor to be a part of the show.

People will eat pumpkin seeds dyed red, as it is viewed as a wallet and the brightly colored shells pepper the streets adding to the festivity. 

Guests are always welcomed with tea and sugared fruits, as it means to sweeten up the year.

It is important to be dressed head to toe in red and put your best foot forward, as people say that the way you act for the next fifteen days determines how the rest of your year goes.

For the first and second days, people aren’t allowed to clean, for why clean away joy?

Kids are warned to not splash water, as it is believed to splash away luck. People also aren’t allowed to wash their hair, as the chinese character for hair, fa, has the same pronunciation as fa cai, which means to prosper.

Trash has to stay put or else it will mean that you will throw away the good things in life. 

Breaking things are taboo throughout the holiday as is scolding children because it is believed that scolding them during new year will lead to scolding them the entire year.

On the second day, families will begin to eat the foods they prepared on new year’s eve to “start the frying pan”, meant to start the new year with a sizzle as people would fry the goods before serving them.

The day is spent visiting close friends. When the older generation meets with the younger generation, they always give them red envelopes filled with lucky money for them to spend after the new year. 

Businesses open up on the fifth day to celebrate the god of wealth’s birthday. Families prepare their homes to make it clean and comfortable to welcome Choi Sun.

Everyone grows a year in spirit on the seventh day as it is considered everyone’s birthday. 

Throughout the fifteen days, people celebrate with their families and close friends, as they usher out the previous year and welcome a new year of prosperity and happiness.

Lunar New Year is a celebration steeped in tradition aging like fine wine, entwining with the history of China with deep roots in its culture.