chinese new year

Amy is an international student currently studying at Kingston University in London. Here she describes how Chinese New Year is celebrated in her home country of Taiwan.

The most important holiday in Taiwan is the Lunar New Year. It normally comes around one month after the Western New Year, and there are similarities between Christmas and Chinese New Year. On this special holiday, families get together for the festivities. Whilst visiting relatives and friends, we greet them with New Year sayings, wishing them good luck, good health, great fortune and so on. Adults give children little red envelopes with money inside them instead of gifts.

At New Year's time, most families paste signs on and around the front doors of their homes. These signs consist of black or gold Chinese characters written on squares or strips of red paper, because red is a happy colour which brings good luck. You always see red as the main decorative colour during this holiday.

As part of Foreign Fridays, we explore a different country each week through its most unusual, amusing and odd facts. If you want your country to appear, then simply get in contact with us either in the comments below or through Facebook or Twitter.

This week it is the turn of China:

On the first day of Chinese New Year, many people, particularly
Buddhists, abstain from eating meat as they believe
that it will ensure they enjoy a long life.

We have reached the final New Year related Foreign Fridays Fact, in what has been a busy January, full of celebrations. And this week we have possibly the most famous of them all- Chinese New Year. 

In China the New Year's celebrations last for 15 days, with New Year's Day counting as day 1. During this time most people take time off work to be with family and friends, and many travel back to their home town or village. Trains, buses, roads, and planes all become packed out with people travelling across the country.