For Americans, the New Year is celebrated usually with fireworks on New Year’s Eve and a countdown. You may go out with friends or get together with family, but the festivities usually only last one or two days.

However, the Chinese New Year is a much longer and more extensive celebration. In fact, it is most likely the most extensive of all of the Chinese annual celebrations. For 15 days, the Chinese New Year is observed and celebrated by the Chinese people.

Not only do Chinese New Year celebrations take place it China, but a lot of other places where there are a lot of people with Chinese heritage. In all parts of the globe you can find people observing and taking part in the Chinese New Year celebrations.

The exact dates the Chinese New Year is celebrated depends on the lunar calendar. From one full moon until 15 days later until the next full moon, the Chinese New Year is in full effect. For example, in 2008 the Chinese New Year begins on February 7th.

To fully understand how to celebrate the Chinese New Year, you need to know all about the many customs that accompany the celebration. The first thing you must understand is how important this celebration is for the Chinese people.

In China, workers take off the full two weeks to properly celebrate this time of year. The Chinese New Year for those who celebrate it is a way to be thankful for another year and also to be around families and loved ones. It’s also a time to say goodbye to all of what happened in the year prior and to look forward to the upcoming year and what it may bring.

To prepare for the Chinese New Year, it’s customary to fully clean your house. The house needs to be absolutely spotless. It’s not unheard of to put aside multiple days just to make sure that the house is thoroughly clean as the upcoming year approaches.

Once every inch of the house is clean, it’s time to decorate the house. The houses are decorated with flowers, fruits and other items from nature to symbolize the fresh start of the upcoming year. In addition to regular decorations, handwritten notes are left around the house with greetings and well wishes for the upcoming year. Due to all the family that will be gathering, the notes should be placed in prominent locations in the house so they can be read and so that the messages can be shared.

Next up, you need to make food for the Kitchen God. The Kitchen God is a God that watches over your house’s kitchen and gives you the heat to prepare your food all year round. To make sure that the Kitchen God is happy with you and your family, you are to offer the Kitchen God food during this time in the Chinese New Year. The food should be sweet and filled with sugar and honey.

Now it’s time for the big feast of the Chinese New Year. This is when all the family gathers around and eat while talking about the past year and looking forward to the upcoming year. The type of food that is served varies but Chinese dumplings is the most popular type of food.

On the first day of the Chinese New Year, children are given an envelope that contains good luck money. Also, everyone in the family is to wear new clothes and everyone is supposed to be happy and subdued on the first day of the Chinese New Year. It’s considered very bad luck to get angry or raise your voice on this day. Staying at home around your family is expected on the first day of the year.

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, families are expected to go out and visit with friends and other relatives who weren’t apart of the original celebration. At each gathering, there should be more exciting and tasty food available. For example, dishes made with oranges or berries are popular on this day. Gift are also sometimes exchanged at these gatherings. If you are giving a gift to a child, an envelope containing good luck money is customary.

During this first week of the Chinese New Year is when there will be the parties and celebrations that families can attend. If you’ve seen those elaborate Chinese parades with dragons and floats, most likely that was part of the Chinese New Year celebration. In addition to parades, families can go watch shows at theatres or go see a fireworks show. The possibilities are endless for entertainment during this first week of the year.

On the 15th and final day of the celebration, it’s customary to take a Chinese lantern to celebrate the final parade. In this final parade, people begin to look forward to the year at hand as the celebration winds down.

One cultural difference that explains why the Chinese New Year is much more celebrated than the American New Year is the fact that age is calculated differently in each cultural. In America, birthdays are celebrated on the anniversary of the day you were born. However in the Chinese culture, everyone celebrates their birthday on the first day on the Chinese New Year. It doesn’t matter which exact day you were born, the beginning of the year marks the birthday for everyone!

Superstitions are also a big part of the Chinese New Year celebration. The superstitions are endless as they’ve been past down from generation to generation. One example of a Chinese New Year superstition is that while cleaning is mandatory before the Chinese New Year celebrations, you are not supposed to clean during the first few days of the year. By cleaning, you would be sweeping away your good luck and good fortune for the year.

Another superstition is that all sharp objects should be put away for the first couple days of the year. If you have sharp objects open in your house, there is a risk that you might damage your forthcoming good luck. With this in mind, any food that needs to be prepared should be prepared prior to the beginning of the year.

It’s important to not that the celebrations for the Chinese New Year will differ depending on the location. If you are in a town in China, for example, your experience would be a lot different if you are in San Francisco’s Chinatown. While you will see almost all the traditions still alive and well in the city in China, some of the traditions may have been modified by those in San Francisco. The reason being that some aspects are just impossible to integrate into the American culture. For example, Chinese people living in America can’t shut down their business for the entire Chinese New Year like is customary in China.

Although the customs and traditions of the Chinese New Year may be unfamiliar, you owe it to yourself to learn and experience as much as you can. It’s a wondrous celebration filled with positive energy and hope for the future. The Chinese New Year is basically like all of the traditional American holidays rolled into one long celebration at the beginning of each year.