The CHINESE SPRING FESTIVAL AND NEW YEAR 2005

The Year of the Rooster

The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people. Like Christmas in the West it is the time when family get together.

When is the Cinese New Year?

The Spring Festival is celebrated the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, which usually is a month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the people's sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one.
The Chinese have seven days free stipulated by law for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

These panoramas by Liu Gang was made at the Spring Festival 2005 in Kunming, Yunnan, South West China

Liu Gang writes:

Family reuninon, sightseeing tour, visiting relatives and friends are the main activities during the festival. The Spring Festival symbolizes the coming of the spring and all the things will emerge with the new visages for the new year.

What date is the Chinese New Year?

The major days in 2005 are: the Lunar New Year's Eve( Feb.10), the Lunar New Year's Day( Feb. 11) and the 15th of the first lunar month( Feb. 24).

What is the Spring Festival ? It is family reunion; it is the parents' meticulous care to the childrens growth; it is the sons and daughters' considerate attention to the elder parents; it is the family tour; it is the visiting to the relatives and friends; it is the walking street contributed by the municipal government to the citizens and the tourists; it is a flower of the cherry-apple trees and a new bud of the willows around the Green Lake in Kunming.

Links:

The Traditional Chinese Festivals

Chinese New Year in London

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