Welcoming and celebrating the Lunar New Year 2024
Are you familiar with the practice of dragon dancing, the gifting of red envelopes or the festival of lanterns with its colorful and beautiful lights that illuminate the night sky?
These widely celebrated and cherished traditions that are practiced around the world by an estimated two billion people in commemoration of the Lunar New Year.
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As we enter 2024, this year's Lunar New Year will begin on February 10th and will continue for a week of festivities, marking our entrance into the year of the dragon.
What exactly is the Lunar New Year?
The Lunar New Year is a celebration of the first new moon recorded within the Lunar calendar that spans for a total of 15 days until the first full moon. The holiday marks the next year within the Lunar calendar and ushers in a plethora of ancient cherished traditions to celebrate with loved ones. Traditions which bring good fortune and honor the memories of the deceased.
How is the Lunar New Year celebrated?
Lunar New Year is celebrated through many different long-practiced traditions and festivities.
On the eve of the holiday the festivities begin with a big feast and a table full of delicious and symbolic dishes. The dishes range in variety from long-stretched noodles which foretell long life, to a whole fish which represents wealth and surplus. Also, sweet rice balls are used to represent unity. The dishes prepared for the feast serve not only as food, but also as a deeply traditional and symbolic representation of culture and festivities.
The celebrations at a feast are endless. Gifts in the form of red envelopes are exchanged and given to younger generations as a form of support and as a symbol of prosperity and fortune in the coming year.
Countless people follow set rules and abide by set superstitions during the celebration period of the Lunar New Year.
A few superstitions of the Lunar New Year include not washing your hair or clothes on New Year's Day, as it will wash away your good luck for the year. No white or black clothes during the period of celebration, as black and white are unlucky colors, as opposed to red. There are also no hospital visits, as they predict oncoming illness.
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The Lunar New Year culminates in a Lantern Festival at the end of the 15 days.
The Lantern Festival marks the very beginning of the new year and the beginning of the spring season. The Lantern Festival is meant to symbolize peace, reconciliation and unity as a whole.
The Lantern Festival consists of many different traditions with deep historical and cultural significance that include beautiful and grandiose lanterns of simplistic and detailed spheres.
Many of these lanterns display figures like glowing, dancing dragons and lions, wherein performers enact dances to symbolize their respective animals used to bless and entertain.
This tradition is often accompanied with fireworks as a sheer celebration of happiness.
Overall, the Lunar New Year serves as a heavily treasured and culturally significant celebration for many East and Southeast Asian countries communities like China, Malaysia, Singapore and others.
You don’t have to be a part of these communities to celebrate or appreciate their culture.
In commemoration of the Lunar New Year, cook a delicious and traditional dish, give gifts and simply spend time with your loved ones.
