In the Chinese Lunar calendar, 2022 marks the Year Of The Tiger. People around the world who may be of Chinese descent take part in the Spring festival which helps to mark the Lunar New Year. This is the most important festival in China and also symbolises a major event in many other East Asian countries. Lunar New Year is known as Seollal in South Korea, Tet in Vietnam, and Tsagaan Sar in Mongolian .
The Chinese New celebrations form part of a festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. It was traditionally a time to honour deities as well as ancestors, and it has also become a time to feast and to visit family members. Each year, the celebrations last around two weeks with the eve of the festival being held on the fifteenth day of the Lunar calendar. Traditional functions and festivities include seeing out the old year and welcoming in the new one which is meant to bring good luck.
This year, the Chinese New Year festivities began on the 1st February which marked the start of the Year Of The Tiger. The public holiday has been arranged from January 31st to February 6th, 2022.
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 incoming Tiger years 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 which is associated with strength, bravery, and exorcising evils.
It has been said that people born in the Year Of The Tiger may come across a lot of bad luck in their lives due to their zodiac year being known as Ben Ming Nian. It has been thought that if they want to bring back good luck, they must always wear red and this will help protect them from bad spirits etc.
Chinese New Year has a history of over 3,000 years and is associated with several myths. A popular legend tells of the mythical beast Nian (/nyen/, which sounds the same as ‘year’ in Chinese), which shows up every Lunar New Year’s Eve to eat people and livestock. To scare away the monster, people displayed red paper, burned bamboo, lit candles, and wore red clothes. These traditions have been continued until the present time.
During the new year festival, people can take part in a number of activities to help mark the occasion. These can include putting up decorations, offering sacrifices to ancestors, eating reunion dinner with family on New Year’s Eve, giving red envelopes and other gifts, using fireworks and watching lion and dragon dances.
Before the start of the festival, people should give their houses a thorough clean. This represents sweeping away all the bad luck of the preceding year and will help ensure that the house is ready to receive good luck.
Red is the main colour for the festival, as red is believed to be an auspicious colour for the Lunar New Year, denoting prosperity and energy — which ward off evil spirits and negativity. Red lanterns hang in streets; red couplets and New Year pictures are pasted on doors.
Honouring the dead is a Chinese New Year’s tradition that’s kept to the word. Many Chinese people visit ancestors’ graves on the day before the Chinese New Year’s day, offer sacrifices to ancestors before the reunion dinner (to show that they are letting their ancestors “eat” first), and add an extra glass and place it at the dinner table on New Year’s eve.
