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Diversity Affairs Feature

Chinese New Year Festival
Begins Feb. 18 and continues for 15 days

FHSU Celebration - The Chinese Student Association (CSA) would like to invite the FHSU students, staff, & faculty to its Chinese New Year Celebration!! This event will take place Friday, Feb. 23, 2007, at 7 p.m. in Beach/Schmidt. CSA will celebrate with musical performances, traditional dances and songs, and a style show. It is the Year of the Boar - 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007 - come and help celebrate the Chinese New Year with CSA!

( Spring Festival cctv.com)
The oldest and most important festival in China is the Spring Festival, more commonly known in the West as Chinese New Year. Like all Chinese festivals, the date of the New Year is determined by the lunar/solar calendar rather than the Western (Gregorian) calendar, so the date of the holiday varies from late January to mid February.
In China, the New Year is a time of family reunion. Family members gather at each other's homes for visits and shared meals, most significantly a feast on New Year's Eve. In the United States, however, many early Chinese immigrants arrived without their families, and found a sense of community through neighborhood associations instead.
On New Year’s Eve houses are brightly lit and a large family dinner is served. In the south of China sticky-sweet glutinous rice pudding called Nian gao is served, while in the north the steamed dumpling Jiao zi is popular. Most celebrating the festival stay up till midnight, when fireworks are lit, to drive away evil spirits. New Years day is often spent visiting neighbors, family and friends. The public holiday for New Year lasts 3 days in China, but the festival traditionally lasts till the 15th day of the lunar month and ends with the ‘Lantern Festival’. Here, houses are decorated with colourful lanterns, and yuanxiao, a sweet or savoury fried or boiled dumpling made of glutinous rice flour is eaten. 

Chinese new year

Chinese New Year
By the Chinese Calendar
2007 is the Year of the Pig (boar)
It is also known by its former name of Ding Hai.
2006 was the Year of the Dog

(printable monthly calendar)
2007 Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec
2006 Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec
Last modified: 1-11-2007

·  Chinese calendar
Chinese calendar has been in continuous use for centuries, which predates the International Calendar (based on the Gregorian Calendar) we use at the present day which goes back only some 425 years. The calendar measures time, from short durations of minutes and hours, to intervals of time measured in months, years and centuries, entirely based on the astronomical observations of the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars. Read more about it.
·  What is the Chinese New Year's Day in Year 2007?
February 18, 2007 is the first day of the Chinese new year.
·  What is the Chinese New Year's Day in Year 2006?
January 29, 2006 is the first day of the Chinese new year.

There are three ways to name a Chinese year:

1. By an animal (like a mscot). 2007 is known as the Year of the Pig.
   There are 12 animal names; so by this system, year names are re-cycled every 12 years. More.
2. By its Formal Name (Stem-Branch).
   The new year is the year of DingHai. Chinese New Year

In the 'Stem-Branch' system, the years are named in 60-year cycles, and the Name of the Year is repeated every 60 years.
2007 is the 8th year in the current 60-year cycle.

1. Current year is Year 4704 by the Chinese calendar.

[A few Chinese astrological/zodiac websites believe this year should be considered as Year 4705 for zodiac calculations.]
·  What's special about the Chinese New Year in 2006?
It was a Leap Year! Unlike the western calendar, where one extra day is added in February, one whole leap month is added in a Chinese Leap Year.
Just think. If you get paid by the month, instead of working an extra day for nothing, you would get an extra month's pay !!!
This time around, the Leap Month comes after the regular 7-th Month. The "Leap Second Month" begins on August 24,2006. Read more about this here   And here.
·  When was the Chinese New Year's Day in Year 2003?
February 1, 2003. It was the first day in the Year of the Ram (sheep, goat).
This is Year 4700 by Chinese calendar.
·  When was the Chinese New Year's Day in Year 2002?
February 12, 2002. It was the first day in the Year of the Horse.
It is Year 4699 by Chinese calendar.
For those interested in astrology, it is the year of the Black Horse.
·  When was the Chinese New Year's Day in Year 2001?
January 24, 2001. This was the first day in the Year of the Snake.
This is Year 4698.
[Some says this is Year 4638, which is also plausible.
Others claim this year to be either 4699 or 4399, which are almost certainly wrong.]
·  What's special about the Chinese New Year in 2001?
It was a Leap Year! Unlike the western calendar, where one extra day is added in February, one whole leap month is added in a Chinese Leap Year.
Just think. If you get paid by the month, instead of working an extra day for nothing, you would get an extra month's pay !!!
This time around, the Leap Month comes after the regular 4-th Month. The "Leap 4-th Month" begins on May 23, 2001. More about this...
·  When was the Chinese New Year's Day in Year 2000?
February 5, 2000. It was the first day in the Year of the Dragon.
That year ended on January 23,2001.
·  When is the Chinese New Year's Day in some other year?
There is a 160-year calendar which gives all the dates from 1900-2060 written by H. Liang. You can download it free from http://lunarcal.tripod.com/Download.html
·  12 Animals
Each year is also designated by one of the 12 Animals For instance, 2005 is Year of Rooster; 2006 is Year of Dog; and 2007 is the Year of Pig.
This system is extremely practical. A child does not have to learn a new answer to the question, "How old are you?" in each new year. Old people often lose track of their age, because they are rarely asked about their present age. Every one just have to remember that he or she was born in the "Year of the Dog" or whatever.
Since this is the Year of the Pig, any one who was born in the Year of the Pig is now either 0 or 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84 or 96 years old. More about this.
·  New Year's decoration at the front of the house
Colorful calligraphy called 'chun lian' (Spring couplet) are as popular as those for Halloween or Christmas.
·  What's this logo at top right corner of this web page?
The Chinese word for "Spring." The Chinese calls the New Year's Celebration the "Spring Festival." This particular calligraphy is a reproduction of the work by one of master calligrapher Zhao Mengfu Chinese New Year (1254-1322) who wrote it more than 600 years ago.
More on calligraphy
·  Are there Chinese Graphics analogous to Christmas cards?

• There are colorful posters! Traditional.
• New Year's card

·  What is the Chinese word for 'luck'?
Posters with the word 'luck' is often seen around the New Year's. Make one yourself.
·  Solar/Lunar calendar
For monthly calendar of 2006 (designed by Mr. Meng Zhuo of CWR Univ.)
2007 Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec
·  What is the story about the animal of the year?
In Chinese calendar, one of the scheme for counting years is a 12-year cycle. One counts from Year 1,2,3,... up to 12. Then starts over from Year 1. (In modern mathematics, this is modulo 12.) Instead of inventing 12 special symbols for this purpose, 12 animals are used to represent these 12 years. Rabbit (hare), for example, is the 4-th year of the cycle.
See more about this.
·  Chinese dragons
For more about Chinese dragons, go to the Dragon page
·  Fireworks & skywriting
For a bit of fun, look at this. [Chinese BIG5]   [Chinese GB]   [English]
·  How is Chinese New Year's Day determined?

• In one sentence, the Chinese New Year is the second New Moon after the winter solstice.

It is based strictly on astronomical observations, and has nothing to do with the Pope, emperors, animals or myths. Due to its scientific and mathematical nature, we can easily and precisely calculate backward or forward for thousands of years.

• One explanation by Rudy Chiang
• Allen Tsai's site has more details: about Year 2007 and

·  Chinese Zodiac Chinese Zodiac
·  Related Websites

• Tet - New Year in Viet Nam A beautifully written page
• The Japanese word for "New Year's Greetings" is Kinga Shinnen. Chinese New Year

2006 is the Year Heisei 18 in Japan.]
Heisei is the current emperor. Japan is the only country in the world which still number the calender years starting from the ascession of its emperors.