As the rest of the world draws near to the close of the year 2013 on December 31st, the Chinese will enter their New Year on February 10th, 2014.
On February 10th the Chinese will be just starting their New Year because their calendar ends in February.
The Chinese mark their end of year 40 days after the rest of the world ushered in theirs on January 1st because the Chinese follow the lunisolar calendar, also called the Snake Year.
The Chinese New Year day is usually celebrated by over 1.4 billion Chinese people peppered across the globe. Just as the Chinese natives make festivities in China to usher in another year, their fellow countrymen do just the same in other parts of the world.
While celebrating the start of the Chinese New Year, the Chinese mingle around tables at parties and see one another into the fresh year. It is usally a purely colourful affair – typically sprinkled with an unmistakable sweetness of the Chinese culture.
The Chinese start their New Year with singing of the Chinese national anthem, then delivery of speeches as the interaction accompanied the beers and snacks.
As is the norm-of-sorts, entertainment is part of the day’s agenda. Some of the dances looks quite like Karate classed done over music. Music and acrobatic shows feature highly, as do dragon dances, and a lot more. The chairman of the Chinese Business Community in Uganda, Dr. Yu Bin, explains that the Chinese New Year is one of the most important traditional holidays in China.
“It’s a time of the year we gather around one another, around family, and give out gifts and wish one another a happy transition from the previous year into the next,’’ Dr. Bin, who is also a language professor at Makerere University says.
The Chinese New Year day is more like Christmas or Thanks giving day in America. The Chinese New Year’s day celebrations date back millions of years ago and they last fifteen days until the Lantern Festival. This is the world’s longest festival season.
During these 15 days the Chinese do not do any work. It’s their time to rest and be around families. If you are in China during this festive season you would see lots of Chinese people all walking home to their families. After the fifteen days are over then you see them again all walking back to work.
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