Paul P. Tung
A few days ago, I watched a video in which an older gentleman in his eighties talked about the Lunar New Year. He spoke about all aspects of the "New Year," which gave me a lot of new knowledge about Chinese traditions. Before introducing the main points of his talk, I would like to report the good news to everyone: China's Lunar New Year has been officially approved by UNESCO as a world-class intangible cultural heritage. Now this festival is not only a traditional festival of the Chinese nation, it has become a festival for the whole world.
Let's talk about two other special things about this year of the Snake:
First, the first day of the Chinese New Year this year is January 29th in the Gregorian calendar, which is five days earlier than the Start of the spring (立春) (February 3rd). So, in this year of the snake, we have the first Start of the spring. This year, we have a Run June (潤六月). Therefore, the next Start of the Spring (February 4, 2026, in the Gregorian calendar) is 12 days earlier than the New Year's Eve of the Year of the Snake (February 16, 2026, in the Gregorian calendar), so there will be two Start of the spring in this Year of the Snake. (Perhaps many people regard the 24 solar terms as days calculated according to the lunar calendar. They are formulated according to the laws of the movement of the sun, so they are the solar calendar. The most obvious ones are the summer solstice (around June 21 of the solar calendar) and the winter solstice (around December 21 of the solar calendar).
Second, the lunar and solar calendars coincide once every 19 years (if you check your lunar and solar birthdays, you will find that your lunar and solar birthdays coincide with each other on your 19th, 38th, 57th, etc. birthdays). In these 19 years, there are seven lunar years with double the Start of the springs, seven years without the Start of the spring, and five years with single the Start of the springs. This year, the Year of the Snake is one of the seven years with double the Start of the spring.
Starting this year, the Year of the Snake, mainland China will list the Lunar New Year's Eve as a holiday, so there will be a four-day holiday for the Lunar New Year. It can be said that it celebrates the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, symbolizing the prosperity and happiness of the people throughout the year!
Although the first day of the lunar calendar is now called the Spring Festival, people still call it Nian (年). We still greet people by saying, "Happy New Year! 過年好!" So how did this Nian (年) come about? Many people may know that in the past, The oldest legend is that Nian is a monster. Every winter, on the last day of the twelfth lunar month, it always comes out to disturb the people, destroy nature, harm the common people, and bring pain and disaster to people. The common people told the Jade Emperor in the sky about this matter. According to legend, the Jade Emperor knew about this and sent the Purple Power Emperor to the lower world to subdue the monster Nian that was harming the people. From then on, people could celebrate the New Year festival in peace and happiness.
Before concluding this short article, I wish all readers a happy Year of the Snake!
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