The Chinese New Year-snake Year

Kathmandu/2025 January 24 Friday Nepal and China are connected by mountains and rivers. The friendship between Nepal and China has a very long history. The two countries have always maintained a profound friendship and cooperative partnership, and are true friends who share weal and woe. Like Nepal, various traditional festivals are celebrated and observed in China. May be some of us have less knowledge about the Chinese Culture, festival and customs. Here I would like to give a brief introduction about Chinese spring festival and New Year.

In China, and the whole world where Chinese people live, each year when winter at its    end and spring around corner, people throughout China enthusiastically celebrate the first important traditional holiday of the year. Chinese people celebrate spring festival as a New Year by the lunar Calendar. Coming New Year is going to start from 29^th January 2025. According to Chinese lunar calendar, there are 12 animals use to symbolize the Year in which a person is born. For example, Mouse, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. Next coming year is snake year.

In the Chinese zodiac, the year of the snake symbolizes change, renewal, and growth. It’s also associated with wisdom, creativity, and good fortune. The Snake is the sixth animal in the Chinese zodiac, starting a 12-year cycle. People born as Snakes are mysterious, smart, wise, good at talking, determined, and caring. They value knowledge, work hard to achieve goals, and form deep bonds in relationships.

The Lunar New Year 2025 brings with it the arrival of the Wood Snake, a rare and significant combination that occurs once every 60 years. This unique pairing of the snake, known for its wisdom and transformative energy, with the wood element, symbolizes growth, stability, and creativity.

Individuals born under the Snake sign in the Chinese zodiac are often associated with characteristics like wisdom, charm, and strong intuition. They usually think things thoroughly, prefer to keep things private, and are really good at understanding and caring about others.

The Year of the Snake 2025, beginning on January 29, promises to bring wisdom, adaptability, and a sense of transformation. A rare occurrence, the Wood Snake year is believed to bestow unique energies on each Chinese zodiac sign, with some signs aligning more favorably than others

In the Chinese zodiac, the year of the snake symbolizes change, renewal, and growth. It’s also associated with wisdom, creativity, and good fortune. The Snake is the sixth animal in the Chinese zodiac, starting a 12-year cycle.

Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is China’s most important festival. It is also the most important celebration for families and includes a week of official public holiday. The Chinese New Year is said to be the most important and longest holiday celebrated in China. The celebration begins on the first day of the lunar calendar, so it is also called Lunar New Year, and it is considered the beginning of spring, so it is also called Spring Festival.

The Chinese Spring Festival has been included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on December 4, 2024. The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival in China. It marks the beginning of lunar spring and the end of winter. This festival is a time for family reunions and celebrations. It symbolizes the Chinese people’s yearning for a better life and their feelings for home and country.

The Spring Festival’s inclusion on the UNESCO list recognizes its importance to humanity. It also emphasizes the role of intangible cultural heritage in sustainable development. At present, China has 44 items included in the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list, and continues to be the country with the most intangible cultural heritage lists in the world.

The Spring Festival carries Chinese civilization’s pursuit of peace and harmony, carries forward good wishes for the future, and enriches common human values ​​such as social tolerance and harmonious coexistence between man and nature. The Spring Festival is centered around family. Chinese people value family and the bonds between family members, and extend this feeling to society, the country and society. That’s why every Spring Festival, millions of people from across the country make the journey home, making this phenomenon the largest human migration on Earth.

2025 is the first year since it was included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It is very historic. We celebrate China’s largest traditional festival more grandly this year

Fú Characters: a very common decoration during the Chinese Spring Festival is the “Fú (福)” character, which means good fortune in Chinese. A square of red paper adorned with the Fú character is pasted to the outer side of the door to one’s home, and sometimes the character is also used to adorn interior doors.

It’s the biggest holiday in Asian culture. It’s also called the Spring Festival. Many traditions – like wearing the color red – started from an ancient legend about a monster. Various Asian cultures have different zodiacs and traditions. .The Chinese new year dates change every year.

“Happy New Year” is the simplest greeting, and is easy to remember: 新年快乐 (xīn nián kuài lè) “Happy Spring Festival” is also very popular, and is just as easy to remember: 春节快乐 (chūn jiē kuài lè).

Some Lucky Symbols of Chinese New Year are Fish-Symbol of abundance and plenty.Pinwheel- “Auspicious” pinwheels blow away bad luck, bring good fortune.Fu-This Chinese character means “fortune” or “blessing.” Turned upside down, “luck has arrived.”Fu Lu Shou-Three Star Gods represent happiness, wealth, longevity.

The purpose of Chinese New Year celebration is, it it starts from the Beginning of Spring, it marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring. The Spring Festival marks a new year on the lunar calendar and represents the desire for a new life.

Spring festival is China’s major traditional festival. Except spring festival, the lantern festival, pure Brightness Day, the dragon boat festival, the mid-autumn festival, and double ninth festival are celebrated as a major traditional festival with full of joyness and happiness. On the occasion of spring festival, Chinese people observe one-week national holidays starting from the first day of the New Year, people put on new clothes to visit relatives and friends and exchange greetings. On the second day, friends and relatives, visit each other with New Year cakes, orange crunchy candy as gifts. On the third day people just stay home and sweep clean their houses.

In the past, where the Chinese people used the lunar calendar, the spring festival was known as the “New Year”. It falls on the first day of the lunar month, the beginning of a New Year. After 19′ A.D. China adopted the Gregorian calendar to distinguish the lunar New Year from the New Year by Gregorian calendar, now the lunar New Year is called spring festival, which is generally celebrated in the last week of January and the mid-February. The last evening before the spring festival, the lunar New Year’s Eve is a very important time for family reunions. The Whole family gets together for a sumptuous dinner, followed by an evening of pleasant talk, games etc.

Some families celebrate very likely with different cultural Programs staying up all night “Seeking the year out”. On this occasion, some go for marriage considering auspicious day. Go for long tour and some watch colorful T.V. Programs. The next morning, people use to pay their New Year greetings and wishes to their relatives and friends. They use to send and receive New Year and spring festival card.

Now most of the city dwellers send greetings through WeChat and E-mail. During the New Year and spring festival various traditional and modern recreational activities are enjoyed in many Parts of China like lion dances, dragon lantern dances and – boat rowing and stilt – walking. Firework is played to express joy and happiness during the spring festival and other auspicious occasions too. Fireworks playing is regarded as one China’s most important custom. Since several hundred years, the uses of spring festival couplets are still very popular in China. Spring festival Couplets are hung not only on the front of gates, but also, on the walls and beams and in setting rooms. Preparation for the New Year begins several days early when houses are thoroughly cleaned and new clothes purchased.

It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly clean their house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Another custom is the decoration of windows and doors with red paper cuts and couplets. Popular themes among these paper-cuts and couplets include that of good fortune or happiness, wealth, and longevity. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes. For the northern regions of China, dumplings are featured prominently in meals

On New Year’s Eve, all the members of families come together for joint feast on thin occasion, JIAOZI- steamed dumplings are popular among Chinese people. JAOZI is much preferred the north, while a sticky Sweet glutinous rice pudding called NIAN GAO is preferred in South of China.

Guo Nian means passing the year is common term for wishing among the Chinese people for celebrating the spring festival. Chinese celebrate spring festival like X-mas for Americans and European and Dashain festival for Nepali.

In spite of heavy influence of western culture, Chinese people still celebrate and observe their various customs, festivals and activities accompanying traditional feasts and celebration with enthusiasm.

(Dr. Harish Chandra Shah is a President of Nepal China Cultural and Educational Council)