Chinese New Year or Spring Festival

Brief Introduction

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. Chinese months are reckoned by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day. New Year festivities traditionally start on the first day of the month and continue until the fifteenth, when the moon is brightest. Chinese New Year's Eve is known as Chuxi. It literally means "Year-pass Eve". And the 15th day of the month is called Lantern Festival.

This was a time for the Chinese to congratulate each other and themselves on having passed through another year, a time to finish out the old, and to welcome in a new year. The 2009 date for Chinese New Year is January 26.