The Chinese follow the lunar calendar to determine the dates of festivals, traditions, and rituals related to birth and death. Their months begin with the new moon. However, for regular activities like office work, school, and monthly salaries, they also use the Gregorian calendar.
Chinese culture has a history of over 5,000 years. To preserve and follow their traditional culture, they use the Chinese lunar calendar. This calendar follows a 12-year cycle of animals, with the transition from one animal to the next marked by the Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival.
Currently, the year is 4723 according to the Chinese traditional calendar, but many Chinese refer to it as the year of the snake, 2025. The Chinese Spring Festival, which marks the start of the new year, is the most significant celebration. During this time, China is decorated with red lanterns, lucky knots, and various red-colored decorations, making it a vibrant celebration similar to Nepal’s Tihar festival.
The Spring Festival is celebrated with grand decorations, family reunions, feasts, and exchanges of gifts. From visiting relatives to traveling, this festival is both joyful and expensive. People also give red envelopes (hongbao) containing money as a sign of luck and blessings for the new year. The Chinese believe that wearing red during this time will bring good luck and ward off evil.
In addition to the celebrations, superstitions, and traditional practices are strongly observed. For example, sweeping the house or throwing away trash during the Spring Festival is avoided, as it is believed to discard wealth and prosperity. Also, Chinese people avoid doing anything that may invite bad luck, such as talking about illness, death, or disasters during the first day of the new year.
The Spring Festival is also a major time for travel. With a weeklong holiday, the number of travelers in China during this period is the largest human migration in the world. In 2024, the number of travelers during the holiday exceeded 2.3 billion, marking an annual increase in internal travel spending.
Economically, the Chinese Spring Festival is a significant period, as it leads to massive spending in areas such as travel, entertainment, and retail. Chinese cinema also performs well, with box office collections during the holiday surpassing those of Hollywood for the first time.
This period of economic activity and cultural celebration highlights the importance of the Spring Festival in China’s social and economic life. It is a time for family, traditions, and cultural practices that have been passed down through generations while also being a major driver of the country’s economy during the New Year period.
