Are you ready for the 2023 Chinese New Year celebrations?

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or Chinese Lunar New Year, is the most significant festival celebrated across China and other East Asian countries. While the festival is one of the most important holidays in China, it’s also celebrated with equal aplomb by the Chinese diaspora and the Asian community spreading all around the world.

From mouth-watering food to new clothes, decorations and entertainment, Chinese families get together and celebrate the festival, hoping for a brand-new start and good fortune for the year to come. And Chinese New Year of 2023 falls on January 22, starting a year of the Rabbit.

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2023 Chinese public holidays

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Every lunar year in China corresponds to one of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiacs. The upcoming lunar year corresponds to the rabbit.

The Rabbit ranks fourth in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac signs. For Chinese people, the rabbit is a tame creature representing hope and life for a long time. It’s very tender and lovely, and is the incarnation of the moon goddess, always a symbol of pureness and auspiciousness.

Chinese regional customs and traditions vary widely but share the same theme — saying goodbyes to the old year and welcoming in the luck and prosperity of a new year.

Usually, two weeks ahead of the Spring Festival, China is permeated with a holiday atmosphere. On the 8th day of the twelfth lunar month, many families will make the Laba congee, a kind of congee made from more than eight treasures, including the glutinous rice, lotus seed, beans, gingko, millet etc. The following are the main Chinese New Year traditions:

In general, Chinese people will have their year-end household cleaning before the Spring Festival, which symbolizes sweeping away the bad luck of the preceding year and making their homes ready to receive good lucks.

Chinese New Year in China is like Christmas in the western countries, is a boom time for people to go shopping. Usually before the Chinese New Year’s Eve, people will buy New Year’s food and snacks, decorations, new clothes, fireworks to welcome the upcoming New Year. Many people believe that purchasing new items symbolizes welcoming new things and getting ready for a brand-new start.

Typically, couplets are pasted on doorways as a part of the festival’s decoration. The custom of pasting the Spring Festival couplets can be dated back more than 1000 years to the Later Shu State (934-965). In general, the couplets include two vertical scrolls on two sides and a horizontal scroll on the top.

The paper cutting is an ancient Chinese art form originated in the 6th century AD that uses simple cutting and folding paper techniques to create intricate decorations. Traditional paper-cutting is used to decorate windows or offices ahead of the New Year, to symbolize longevity and love.

The family reunion dinner on Chinese New Year’s Eve is the most important meal of the year for Chinese people. The grand and delicate dinner usually fakes families a few days to prepare and cook.

Chinese people who live in different parts of China would stick to various local traditions, and the menu for the reunion dinner on Chinese New Year’s Eve varies from place to place. The most indispensable food and dishes for the reunion dinner in different regions are as follows:

1. Shandong Province: Jiaodong Huabobo

2. Xinjiang: Hand Grasping Mutton Chops

3. Shanxi Province: Zha Yougao

4. Sichuan Province: Sichuan-style Sausage

5. Fujian Province: Fotiaoqiang (Monk Jumps over the Wall)

6. Hainan Province: Wenchang Chicken

Lucky red envelopes — or (‘Hongbao’ in Mandarin) — are a Chinese New Year staple. The red color symbolizes energy, happiness, and good luck in Chinese cultures. Traditional red envelopes are often decorated with beautiful Chinese calligraphy and symbols. Wrapping lucky money in red envelopes is expected to bestow more happiness and blessings on the receivers.

China's public holiday for Lunar New Year is 7 days, from Chinese New Year's Eve to the sixth day of the lunar calendar new year. Holidays in Hong Kong, Macao, and other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Korea are 1 to 3 days.

The Chinese New Year is one of the most important festivals in Malaysia. Also known as the Lunar New Year, this festival of renewal is of huge religious and cultural significance in the South-East Asian nation, where a quarter of the population claim Chinese ancestry.

The Chinese New Year offers an opportunity for families to come together and wish each other good fortune in the coming year. It is very common to give cards to relatives and friends, while many family gatherings are held on Lunar New Year's Eve.

Lunar New Year is more than a one-night celebration. Instead, the festivities usually extend over 15 days. It’s important to note that many businesses will be closed or have shorter opening hours, many Chinese districts will likely shut down throughout this period.

😀Read more：Malaysia public holidays in the Year of the Rabbit 2023

Purchasing a Chinese New Year gift for friends, families or relatives is one of the traditions and cultures for Chinese Lunar New Year. Gifts are an integral part of the New Year celebrations as it symbolizes goodwill, love and harmony among family members, friends and colleagues.

One of the main themes of celebrating the Chinese New Year is to have plenty of food to eat. Traditional Chinese New Year food gifts include dumplings, fish, chicken, and noodles. While traditional cakes like sweet rice balls and sticky rice cakes are made, many other sweets are enjoyed as sweet food can symbolize a ‘sweet life’. In addition, chocolate is always a popular gift for loved ones and friends during the Chinese Lunar New Year.

If you are in Singapore during the Chinese New Year, the Chingay Parade is an annual popular celebration that you can’t miss. With the meaning of ‘the art of costume and masquerade’ in the Hokkien dialect, the Chingay Parade started in 1973 as a street parade, with different groups and races coming together to put on a colorful display to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Visiting shopping malls is a tradition for locals in Hong Kong to celebrate the upcoming New Year. When the Year of the Rabbit approaches, amazing festive decorations and displays have started popping up around many shopping malls, stores and restaurants.

Initially stared in the late 1800s, the Golden Dragon Parade remains the longest-running Lunar New Year parade outside China. Nowadays, the parade sees over 80,000 attendees every year with thousands of people viewing the broadcast online.

With a tradition of more than 100 years, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles presents the 124th annual Golden Dragon Parade. This colorful celebration along North Broadway in Chinatown has become the premiere cultural event in the Southern California Asian-American Community.

Considered as one of Malaysia’s largest and oldest temples, the Kuala Lumpur’s Thean Hou Temple lures thousands of festivalgoers every year to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, with themed lantern dispalys and wishes of abundant wealth, food and dignity for the year ahead.