chinese new year open house essay

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Lunar New Year 2024

By: History.com Editors

Updated: February 9, 2024 | Original: February 4, 2010

A lit-up dragon lantern at a Chinese New Year Spring Festival celebration in Xi'an, China.

Lunar New Year is one of the most important celebrations of the year among East and Southeast Asian cultures, including Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean communities, among others. The New Year celebration is celebrated for multiple days—not just one day as in the Gregorian calendar’s New Year.

This Lunar New Year, which begins on February 10, is the Year of the Dragon.

China’s Lunar New Year is known as the Spring Festival or Chūnjié in Mandarin, while Koreans call it Seollal and Vietnamese refer to it as Tết .

Tied to the lunar calendar, the holiday began as a time for feasting and to honor household and heavenly deities, as well as ancestors. The New Year typically begins with the first new moon that occurs between the end of January and spans the first 15 days of the first month of the lunar calendar—until the full moon arrives.

Zodiac Animals

Each year in the Lunar calendar is represented by one of 12 zodiac animals included in the cycle of 12 stations or “signs” along the apparent path of the sun through the cosmos.

The 12 zodiac animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. In addition to the animals, five elements of earth, water, fire, wood and metal are also mapped onto the traditional lunar calendar. Each year is associated with an animal that corresponds to an element.

The year 2024 is slated to be the year of the dragon—an auspicious symbol of power, wisdom and good fortune. The year of the dragon last came up in 2012.

Lunar New Year Foods and Traditions

Each culture celebrates the Lunar New Year differently with various foods and traditions that symbolize prosperity, abundance and togetherness. In preparation for the Lunar New Year, houses are thoroughly cleaned to rid them of inauspicious spirits, which might have collected during the old year. Cleaning is also meant to open space for good will and good luck.

Some households hold rituals to offer food and paper icons to ancestors. Others post red paper and banners inscribed with calligraphy messages of good health and fortune in front of, and inside, homes. Elders give out envelopes containing money to children. Foods made from glutinous rice are commonly eaten, as these foods represent togetherness. Other foods symbolize prosperity, abundance and good luck.

Chinese New Year is thought to date back to the Shang Dynasty in the 14th century B.C. Under Emperor Wu of Han (140–87 B.C.), the tradition of carrying out rituals on the first day of the Chinese calendar year began.

“This holiday has ancient roots in China as an agricultural society. It was the occasion to celebrate the harvest and worship the gods and ask for good harvests in times to come," explains Yong Chen, a scholar in Asian American Studies.

During the Cultural Revolution in 1967, official Chinese New Year celebrations were banned in China. But Chinese leaders became more willing to accept the tradition. In 1996, China instituted a weeklong vacation during the holiday—now officially called Spring Festival—giving people the opportunity to travel home and to celebrate the new year.

Did you know? San Francisco, California, claims its Chinese New Year parade is the biggest celebration of its kind outside of Asia. The city has hosted a Chinese New Year celebration since the Gold Rush era of the 1860s, a period of large-scale Chinese immigration to the region.

Today, the holiday prompts major travel as hundreds of millions hit the roads or take public transportation to return home to be with family.

Among Chinese cultures, fish is typically included as a last course of a New Year’s Eve meal for good luck. In the Chinese language, the pronunciation of “fish” is the same as that for the word “surplus” or “abundance.” Chinese New Year’s meals also feature foods like glutinous rice ball soup, moon-shaped rice cakes (New Year’s cake) and dumplings ( Jiǎozi in Mandarin). Sometimes, a clean coin is tucked inside a dumpling for good luck.

The holiday concludes with the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated on the last day of New Year's festivities. Parades, dances, games and fireworks mark the finale of the holiday.

In Vietnamese celebrations of the holiday, homes are decorated with kumquat trees and flowers such as peach blossoms, chrysanthemums, orchids and red gladiolas. As in China, travel is heavy during the holiday as family members gather to mark the new year.

Families feast on five-fruit platters to honor their ancestors. Tết celebrations can also include bánh chưng , a rice cake made with mung beans, pork, and other ingredients wrapped in bamboo leaves. Snacks called mứt tết are commonly offered to guests. These sweet bites are made from dried fruits or roasted seeds mixed with sugar.

In Korea, official Lunar New Year celebrations were halted from 1910-1945. This was when the Empire of Japan annexed Korea and ruled it as a colony until the end of World War II . Celebrations of Seollal were officially revived in 1989, although many families had already begun observing the lunar holiday. North Korea began celebrating the Lunar New Year according to the lunar calendar in 2003. Before then, New Year's was officially only observed on January 1. North Koreans are also encouraged to visit statues of founder Kim Il Sung, and his son Kim Jong Il, during the holidays and provide an offering of flowers.

Among both North and South Koreans, sliced rice cake soup ( tteokguk ) is prepared to mark the Lunar New Year holiday. The clear broth and white rice cakes of tteokguk are believed to symbolize starting the year with a clean mind and body. Rather than giving money in red envelopes, as in China and Vietnam, elders give New Year's money in white and patterned envelopes.

Traditionally, families gather from all over Korea at the house of their oldest male relative to pay their respects to both ancestors and elders. Travel is less common in North Korea and families tend to mark the holiday at home.

Lunar New Year Greetings

Cultures celebrating Lunar New Year have different ways of greeting each other during the holiday. In Mandarin, a common way to wish family and close friends a happy New Year is “ Xīnnián hǎo ,” meaning “New Year Goodness” or “Good New Year.” Another greeting is “ Xīnnián kuàilè, ” meaning "Happy New Year."

Traditional greetings during Tết in Vietnam are “Chúc Mừng Năm Mới” (Happy New Year) and “Cung Chúc Tân Xuân” (gracious wishes of the new spring). For Seollal, South Koreans commonly say "Saehae bok mani badeuseyo” (May you receive lots of luck in the new year), while North Koreans say "Saehaereul chuckhahabnida” (Congratulations on the new year).

— huiying b. chan , Research and Policy Analyst on the Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative team at the New York University Metro Center, edited this report.

"Lunar New Year origins, customs explained," by Laura Rico, University of California, Irvine , February 19, 2015.

"Everything you need to know about Vietnamese Tết," Vietnam Insider , December 3, 2020.

"Seollal, Korean Lunar New Year," by Brendan Pickering, Asia Society .

"The Origin of Chinese New Year," by Haiwang Yuan, Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR , February 1, 2016.

"The Lunar New Year: Rituals and Legends," Asia for Educators .

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Essay: Celebrating Chinese New Year Far From Home and Family

Chinese Lunar New Year presentation and lion dance performance w Ann Arbor Chinese Center of Michigan lion dance team at the Ann Arbor District Library, downtown branch, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The second week of January, my friend asked if I could take a look at his book manuscript and help him edit it.

“Sure,” I replied, “but not until after New Year’s.”

“Uhhhh,” he stammered. “But it’s already after New Year’s.”

“Not that New Year’s,” I laughed. “Chinese New Year’s.”

Chinese (or Lunar) New Year is the busiest time of year for my children and me. I am often asked to give presentations about Chinese New Year’s traditions in schools and libraries. The children often perform in the community with their Chinese lion dance, music, dance, and yo-yo troupes. We all have Chinese school responsibilities and Chinese community commitments, plus all our regular school stuff and work stuff: homework, taxes, FAFSA.

I am always so focused on Chinese New Year that I often completely forget about all the other January and February holidays, like Valentine’s Day and Fat Tuesday, until the elementary school teachers send home the class lists for Valentine cards and paczkis show up in the grocery store.

And did someone say something about a football game?

We are supposed to have a big Chinese New Year’s Eve meal together, with a whole fish to represent abundance and wealth in the new year, a whole chicken to represent the whole family together, soybean sprouts to represent all that you wish for, new year’s cake to see how high fortunes will rise in the new year, eggplant for good luck, lettuce for good fortune, pork for wealth, duck for fertility…

We are often so tired, however, that we make do with the leftovers from some performance or other.

This year, we had Bengali fish curry.

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang's son with a lion dance costume.

We are also supposed to prepare for Lunar New Year by cleaning the entire house before New Year’s Day, sweeping the floor from the outside in, decorating the house with poems and good luck wishes written in Chinese calligraphy on red paper, buying new red clothes for all the children (who only wear black now), giving the children red envelopes of crisp new lucky money, visiting the Buddhist temple, and all sorts of good luck things to ensure a good clean start for the new year.

That has never happened on time.

OK, OK, it has never happened at all.

(There will be plenty of time to clean after the children are grown.)

When my children were little, my friend Carol lent me the definitive book about Chinese New Year. A massive book, I spent a month reading all the stories to my children. Every night, after the children fell asleep, I studied the recipes in the book and ended up in the kitchen, hungry, lonely, cooking different Chinese New Year’s recipes at midnight.

My mother scolded that I was turning my children into superstitious old ladies before they even reached elementary school. Modern and educated, my parents did not need these old world superstitions.

I did not learn about Chinese New Year’s until I was 12 years old, and I fantasized about the perfect big warm family gathering that I learned about in Chinese school. Sometimes, when the holiday fell on a weekend, I could convince my parents to invite our relatives over for hot pot. More often, my parents, busy with work and school, would forget — as if it was just another day.

I did not understand how they could forget such a thing until I grew up and worked on Christmas Day in another country that did not celebrate Christmas.

Eastern Michigan University Chinese New Year's celebration, Ypsilanti, Michigan in 2010.

Earlier this year, I saw many of my parents’ college friends at my father’s funeral. These friends of my parents all came to America at about the same time, as international students and young professionals. I called them all "auntie" and "uncle," and they all watched me grow up. I knew their houses. I knew their kids. Other than relatives, they were the only Chinese community that we had.

It had been years since I had seen all my aunties and uncles, and being with them felt like being home. I was so proud to introduce my children to them. I asked them to tell my children funny stories about my parents in their youth, only 25 years old, newly married, young parents, navigating a new country in a new language — the first in their families to travel so far from home.

My brother, who is seven years younger than me, does not remember any of these aunties and uncles. My cousins do not know who they are. My children are curious why I am the only one who knows everyone from every phase of my parents’ lives.

"Although I am not an immigrant, I am also far from home, away from family. I am privileged to speak English fluently and to not experience the overt racism of a century ago, but I still need to create community around my children."

They were my parents’ community.

I have that sort of community now with the “Chinese school moms” and the “International Night moms” — my children’s friends’ moms with whom I have waited, worried, carpooled, complained, and volunteered together on school and community events. Our Chinese school New Year’s celebrations may not be completely traditional, but we are together.

Noticing how close Hsiang-Yi and I are, a man once asked how long we had been friends, and we laughed, “Since preschool!” What we didn’t tell him was that we meant since our kids were in preschool.

I am teaching a course on Asian-American history this semester at the university, and I am reading many first person accounts by early Asian immigrants at the turn of the century about how hard they worked, how much they suffered, and the community groups they created to overcome the challenges they faced in America.

Although I am not an immigrant, I am also far from home, away from family. I am privileged to speak English fluently and to not experience the overt racism of a century ago, but I still need to create community around my children, so grateful for the other “Chinese school moms” that help watch out for my children (and help feed my children), as we continue to navigate our lives together.

Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , and Tumblr .

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a freelance writer and speaker based in Michigan and Hawaii. She has been a contributor for AAPIVoices.com, NewAmericaMedia.org, ChicagoIsTheWorld.org, PacificCitizen.org and InCultureParent.com. She teaches Asian Pacific American Studies and writing and she speaks nationally on Asian Pacific American issues.

Home / Essay Samples / Culture / Holidays / Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year Essay Examples

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