Chinese New Year's Day

Chinese New Year's Day

Festival Photos

In China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Korea, they celebrate New Year according to the Chinese calendar. The Chinese calendar is based on exact astronomical observations of longitude of the sun and the phases of the moon. We now use the solar calendar in Japan, however, some of the festival dates are still decided by Chinese calendar. In many Asian countries, they believe that the Gods visit their houses on a New Year day. They welcome the Gods and pray for health, prosperity and a good harvest. In Indonesia and Singapore, they celebrate a New Year 4 times within a year. There are New Year on January 1st and for undo, Moslem and Chinese.

The Date of Chinse New Year
2014	Jan 31
2015	Feb 19
2016	Feb 4
2017	Jan 28
2018	Feb 16
2019	Feb 5
2020	Jan 25

Stilts Dance Beiging, China On New Year's Day, boys and girls of Beijing put 1m long wooden sticks on their legs. They dance on the stilts and visit the houses. They also perform a play on the stilts. They play as a old man and a young lady and a trick man. They do acrobatics as jumping by one leg or making quick turn.		New Year's Majestic Opera Guizhou, China Row-Kan tribes of Guizhou, China perform the traditional majestic opera on New Year's Day. When the music of drums, flutes, and gongs are played, the opera is started at the center of the village. There are a goddess, a hero and ogres. They install banners on their backs and perform a sword-play. They perform Chinese traditional story of Romance of the three kingdoms.

New Years Day of China Town Singapore On New Year's Day, all the China towns of the world celebrate the New Year. In China Town of Singapore, A dragon dance with the drums and gongs. 20 boys support the dragon by sticks and jump around. The dragon dance whirling and rising up. Then open the mouth and blow fire. Around the dragon dance firecracker are set off. Through this way, they drive away evil spirits.		Chingay Festival] Singapore In Singapore, 75% of the population is Chinese. Every January 15th according to the Old Chinese calendar, performing groups come to the festival place not only from outside Singapore city but also from foreign countries. They perform a big celebration of New Year's Day. "Chingay" means the decorated floats and stages or disguises. When the laser lights project onto the sky in the evening, the parade starts. The dragon dances by roller skaters. Acrobatic boys from Taiwan, Katakari dances from India, a giant from France... etc. There are 3000 performers of 23 groups keep dancing at the night. Chingay festival started 1973 and now it is the biggest festival of Singapore.

Human Chess of "Tet", New Year's Day Hanoi, Vietnam In Vietnam, New Yerar's Day is called as "Tet". Village people set off firecrackers and celebrate the big day. Boys and girls dress like a king and a queen or women servants of the Court and come to the Culture Center of Hanoi. The courtyard of the building is the chess board and boys plays against girls. The king and the queen put on a crown and install banners on their backs. The chess is played at the different place by professional players and these boys and girls move around as the chess pieces.		The New Year's Day of Taiwan Taipei, Taiwan n Taipei, Taiwan, people celebrate New Year's Day on January 15th by the Lunar calendar. The last events of the New Year's Day is "Lantern Festival". Around the National Theater and Concert Hall, more than 100 floats decorated by lanterns are lined up. On each float, the mechanical puppets of historic heros are installed. In front of the Memorial Hall, 100m long dragon dance and lion dances are performed. Finally, Fukurokuju God of happiness appears and pray for the prosperity of people for this year.

New Year's Day of Suwon Suwon, Korea In Korea, people wear traditions costumes on the New Year's Day and greet formally with their parents and grand parents. This is the way to unify the family ties. Children received money given as a gift at the New Year from their parents and then they have banquets. In villages, "Nongak", dance of farmers, is performed. Young men dance with drums and gongs. They make quick turns and jumping around. As they turn their heads, white tapes put on the hats are waving. "Nongaku" is performed with the pray of the good harvests in autumn.		The New Year's Day of China Town Yokohama, Japan The China town of Yokohama city was born in 1867 as the 1st settlement for Chinese in Japan. Now the population is 5000 for 500 square meters. There are 500 restaurants and shops for the good tourist spots. On New Year's Day, Chinese people have a big celebration. Countdown is started on New Year Eve, during the lion and dragon dances which are performed by high school students. On the New Year's Day, firecrackers are set off. With the lout music of gongs and drams, dragon and lions are acrobatically dance through the China town. There are costume parades by minority Chinese people. On this day, every China town in the world celebrate the New Year's Day.

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