Learn How to Celebrate a Traditional Chinese New Year's Eve

What do the Chinese have on us when it comes to ringing in the New Year? Well, for starters a 15-day celebration involving fireworks, dumplings and customs seemingly designed to drive your mother crazy! Don't miss out on the party that 6 million Chinese, and many more around the world, have been having for centuries. It begins on the first day of the first lunar month of the Chinese calendar year, (or the first day containing a new moon) which falls on a different date every year, and in 2007, begins on February 18th and lasts through March 4th.

We are currently in the year of the dog and beginning on February 18, 2007 we will enter the year of the boar (or pig). The year of the boar is believed to be an ideal year to have children. The boar is associated with fertility and virility and children born in the year of the boar are believed to live happy and honest lives.

As the most important of the Chinese holidays, it is also known as the lunar New Year and the spring festival. In ancient China, legend had it that the first day of the lunar New Year was the day Nian, a man-eating beast from the mountains, could enter homes and attack humans. Nian hates loud noises and the color red, which precipitated the traditions of lighting firecrackers and decorating homes with the color red. Chuxi, the Mandarin name for New Year, literally means getting rid of the beast Nian. After Nian was believed to have been scared away, the big celebrations would herald in another year of safety.