The Spring Festival (2 min)
The spring festival which is the most celebrated festival on Earth begins in February this year!
Why is it the most celebrated festival on Earth? I googled and looked at China's population and that of countries that celebrate the lunar new year.
Population in 2022:
- China - 1.4 billion
- Taiwan - 23 million
- Hong Kong - 7 million
- South Korea - 51 million
- Vietnam - 99 million
These are the countries which welcome the lunar new year based on the Chinese zodiac with the exception of Vietnam which does not have the rabbit but the cat instead.
This year, the eve of the spring festival or lunar new year will fall on 31st of January. Depending on where the one who celebrates this fantastically big is, there may be public holidays or spring festival break that lasts for 2 days to at least a fortnight.
The start of the spring festival is based on the lunar calendar. However there is the concept of "Li Chun" or 立春 which is based on the solar calendar which is the official day to welcome the new zodiac animal. In 2022, it will be the Tiger.
For the new born babies, those that are born on the 4th February 2022 will be considered the Tiger zodiac in the year pillar. Traditionally, the tiger years saw few female babies in Chinese families. I am unsure if the other ethnic groups of Koreans and Vietnamese saw fewer tiger babies born especially if they did not favour "tiger" daughters.
With the current virus situation, it seems that the majority of the people would be celebrating the spring festival on a muted note. The spring festival will still be celebrated using digital platforms to send greetings to loved ones and the sending of digital currency as red packets for the Chinese.
Stay tuned!
OXOX
Photo credit reference: Wuyi on Unsplash
Comments