Lunar New Year 2022: Welcoming the Year of the Tiger
Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is just around the corner. Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year 2022 falls on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022, starting a year of the Tiger. Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival, is a large event in Chinese communities throughout the world. Even though Taiwan is not a part of mainland China, many of the Taiwanese people are from the Han ethnic group and speak Mandarin. They also adhere to many of the cultural customs of their mainland counterparts. Chinese New Year is determined as a public holiday according to legislation passed by the Taiwanese government. The holiday is even celebrated quite extravagant in Taiwan.
The Spring Festival, or chunjie (春節), begins on the first day of the first month according to the Chinese lunar calendar. It usually falls in February – this year it falls on February 1st 2022. The festival continues until the conclusion of the holiday season on the 15th day of the same month. The Spring Festival is a time for family reunions and festivities. Many travellers from across the world also travel to Taiwan to celebrate Chinese New Year.
- Wearing ideally Red clothes!
The New Year is a chance for a fresh start for everyone, and so many people choose to wear new clothes for the first few days of the holidays.
For Chinese New Years’ eve you dress up in your new clothes, and many families actually continue in the days that follow to ensure you have secured your luck for the year.
Why RED?
Red to Chinese means joy, happiness, karma, bliss, and all things positive. Therefore, the whole country is wrapped in red!
- Chinese New Year Food
Most every food traditionally eaten during Chinese New Year has some kind of symbolism. The word for “fish” is homonymous with that of “surplus”, therefore is widely eaten.
Also, Dumplings which supposedly hold some resemblance to Chinese gold ingots, so eating them means you will become prosperous. “Chicken” and “luck” are pronounced the same way, et cetera.
Basically, you can think of Chinese New Year as a combination of Thanksgiving’s feast, Christmas’ presents, New Year’s embrace of a fresh start and Independence Day’s fireworks, all rolled into one super big Chinese holiday.
- Dragon and Lion Dances
If you’re familiar with Chinese New Year celebrations in mainland China, you probably know that northern China celebrates the New Year with dragon dances and southern China use lion dances. In Taiwan, the dragon of the north and the lion of Canton are both used in Spring Festival celebrations. This is likely due to the fact that the first Chinese people to come to Taiwan were from various areas of China. This caused people to bring their family and regional customs to Taiwan. This represents the fact that Taiwan is a melting pot for Chinese cultures.
- Feasts
While many East Asian holidays are not oriented around food, the Chinese New Year feast is one of the most anticipated occasions in Taiwan. Prior to this event, family members, and sometimes friends, will gather in a central location to reunite after a year of work or schooling. Together, Taiwanese families will enjoy a large meal of traditional Chinese foods. Some of the most popular dishes include pork dumplings, rice, steamed fish, chicken, and noodles. This also proves that Taiwan consists of many different Chinese cultures. In mainland China, noodles are almost exclusively consumed in Beijing, Shandong, and other northern areas of China. Rice is the staple in the diets of people in Canton and southern China. While enjoying the feast with their family members, Taiwanese people only speak about positive subjects. Chinese traditions state that speaking about misfortune during the Spring Festival will bring poor luck throughout the upcoming year.
