Chinese New Year: the year that will bring the tiger in 2022. Learn more

O Chinese new year it is also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival. It is the most important festival in China. Chinese New Year is celebrated to welcome the arrival of spring and celebrate a year of hard work and relaxation. The 16-day festival is a time for family reunion and a season of traditions and superstitions.

When is Chinese New Year 2022?

Chinese New Year 2022 falls on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, starting a year of the Tiger. I wish you good luck and success in the coming year!

The Chinese New Year date changes every year, but it is always somewhere in the period from January 21 to February 20.

The date of Chinese New Year is determined by the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Chinese New Year is the first day of the lunar calendar and always a new moon day (the second new moon after the winter solstice).

What is the Chinese New Year Animal for 2022?

Chinese Calendar 2022 is the Year of the Tiger. The Chinese zodiac gives each year an animal sign. Each Chinese year is associated with an animal sign according to the Chinese zodiac cycle, which features 12 animal signs in the order Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.

2022 is the year of the Tiger. The recent and future years of the Tiger are 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010 and 2022. If you were born in one of these years, your Chinese zodiac sign is the Tiger.

These zodiac signs always start on Chinese Lunar New Year’s Day, not January 1st!

Chinese New Year History

Chinese New Year has a history of over 3,000 years. Celebrations on Lunar New Year’s Day can be dated back to the ancient worship of Heaven and Earth.

A popular legend tells of the mythical beast Nian (/nyen/, which sounds like ‘year’ in Chinese), which appears every New Year’s Eve to eat people and livestock. To scare the monster away, people displayed red paper, burnt bamboo, lit candles, and wore red clothes. These traditions have continued to the present day.

China’s Spring Festival is rich in traditions and customs. Key Chinese New Year activities include:

• Decoration
• New Year’s Eve Family Reunion Dinner
• Fireworks and fireworks
• Giving red envelopes and other gifts
• Watch the Lion and Dragon Dances

How to celebrate Chinese New Year 2022?

Cleaning the house

It is popular for people in China to do a thorough cleaning of their homes before the Spring Festival, which symbolizes sweeping away the bad luck of the previous year and preparing their homes for good luck.

During the Chinese New Year period, all streets, buildings and houses are decorated with red, as red is believed to be an auspicious color: red lanterns, red couplets, red New Year photos, Chinese knots, paper cuts on red windows and red clothes.

Family dinner

Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) is a time for families to be together. It’s a long-standing tradition for Chinese to come home from work or study and enjoy a reunion dinner with their families on New Year’s Eve, even if it takes a long distance.

Dinner is considered the most important part of the party and the most important meal of the year. Large, multi-generational families sit around round tables and enjoy food and time together. Dishes with a meaning of luck should be included in the dinner, such as fish (signifying surplus and prosperity) and dumplings (signifying wealth). See Chinese New Year lucky foods.

Fireworks

It has long been a Chinese tradition to set off fireworks from the first minute of the New Year. Fireworks have increasingly been added to the cacophony. From public displays in big cities to millions of private celebrations in China’s rural areas, setting off fireworks and fireworks is an indispensable festive activity.

Billions of fireworks go off in China at midnight and in the first few minutes of Chinese New Year, the most anywhere at any time of year.

Chinese New Year gift exchange and red envelopes

Like Christmas in the West, people exchange gifts during the Spring Festival. The most common gifts are red envelopes. Red envelopes have money and are given to children and the elderly (retirees). Red envelopes are used in hopes of bringing good luck (as well as money) to recipients. In recent years, “red envelopes” sent/received by apps appeared.

Other popular New Year gifts are alcohol, tea, fruit and sweets.

Watch the dances between lions and dragons

Lion and dragon dances are widely seen during Chinese New Year celebrations and other traditional Chinese cultural and religious festivals. They are performed to bring prosperity and good luck for the upcoming year or event.

In China, traditions and celebrations vary widely across the country. Read the differences between the New Year celebrations in northern and southern China.

In the race for China’s development, the old ways are being neglected. Only a few traditions remain and some are disappearing.