Contrary to what many people outside Asia may think, Lunar New Year is not exclusively a Chinese holiday. True, it follows the Chinese Lunar calendar (in 2023, it falls on January 22, the Year of the Rabbit), but the holiday is celebrated across Asia and each country has its own customs and traditions. Lunar New Year is most often celebrated by eating specific dishes, usually with the entire family, and observing superstitions meant to bring good luck for the coming year.
I am trying to get into the habit of calling the festival Lunar New Year because in this way it includes all Asians who celebrate as well as the Chinese. While there are similarities, each culture celebrates or emphasises different things.
In Vietnam, Lunar New Year is also known as Tết, and it's celebrated with family. Traditional Vietnamese sticky rice cake snacks like bánh tét (a log-like, cylinder snack) and bánh chưng (a square cake), play a vital role in the celebrations. The Just like other countries, Vietnam has its own traditional costume — the áo dài — a silk tunic with slits on either side that's worn over pants by both men and women for the New Year. Children receive red envelopes with money from their older relatives, too.
Vietnamese do not include the rabbit in their cycle and instead have a cat.
In Korea Lunar New Year is called Seollal. When Seollal comes, families gather together, hold ancestral rites, and enjoy food together! Food is an important part of the holiday and a lot of effort goes into preparing the food for the family.
Koreans dress in traditional costumes (known as hanbok), and children show their respect to elders with deep bows (known as seh bae). As part of the celebration, children also receive money and words of wisdom for the new year.
In Taiwan most people go home to celebrate the new year with their families. It's another country that strongly associates the holiday with food. Nian gao (dumplings) is the most popular dish, closely followed by pineapple. It's considered good luck to not eat all the fish and keep some leftovers from your holiday meals.
Most Taiwanese people spend time with their family and elders in their homes. They also exchange red envelopes during the holiday, and many neighborhoods set off firework displays.
In the Philippines the most traditional celebration of the Lunar New Year is called Media Noche, where Filipino families come together for a midnight feast to celebrate a year of prosperity ahead. The table is usually full of round-shaped fruits — a tradition that originates from China — as the shape represents good fortune.
One of the most unique superstitions of the Lunar New Year in the Philippines is choosing to wear polka dots, as their round shape represents prosperity, money, and good fortune. Fireworks are also often set off to create loud noises to scare away any bad spirits, while lights are turned on and windows and doors are left open.
Singapore and Malaysia also have celebrations specific to their country to celebrate Lunar New Year.
When we put out a display we will use the title Lunar New Year, but most of the books we already have are about the Chinese New Year. You will notice that these new books that were published in the last year do use the term Lunar New Year
Older books:
Huge thanks for this very informative and well researched post.
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