Celebrate Your Holidays With TNT® Fireworks
About the Chinese New Year:
Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival.
It isn’t certain if The Chinese New Year started before or after the Qin Dynasty, but it has been determined to be about 2,638 years older than our calendar. Legend has it that Buddha summoned all the animals, but only 12 arrived before he died and he rewarded them by having a year named after them in the order they arrived.
Chinese New Year is mostly celebrated in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, and has had a strong influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Vietnamese, Koreans, Mongolians, Nepalese, Bhutanese and formerly the Japanese before 1873.
Chinese New Year is also celebrated in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other countries with significant Chinese populations, but it is not part of the traditional culture of these countries. In Canada, although Chinese New Year is not an official holiday, many ethnic Chinese hold large celebrations and Canada Post issues New Year's themed stamps in domestic and international rates.
Fun Facts:
- Chinese New Year's Eve is known as Chuxi. Chu literally means "pass" and xi means "Eve".
- The animals that arrived when Buddha summoned the animals arrived in this order:
Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Do and Boar
The Chinese parents use to decide who their children would marry based on this calendar.
Activities:
- Search the animal that represents your year
- Create your own fireworks by using dark construction paper, glue and different colored glitter.
- Make fortune cookies
- Create dragon kites and lanterns Practice writing Chinese letters
- Make a chopstick picture frame
- Create a hat with the animal of your birth.
