It's Chinese New Year's Eve

Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, was inscribed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage event in 2024.

On New Year’s Eve, people have dinner with family. Traditional New Year's food is different in each region, but meals may include hotpot, dumplings, fish, sticky rice, and rice balls filled with beans or nuts. People light candles or oil and keep vigil all night to drive away evil plagues, eating food, drinking tea, and playing mahjong, chess, or card games.

People decorate doorways with wood-block prints of animals and fruit, and phrases expressing hopes for the new year. They also clean the house before the new year to get rid of bad luck. Children receive red envelopes containing money from older relatives. There are parades featuring costumes, acrobats, lion and dragon dances, and music. 

The traditional origin of Chinese New Year is the story of Nian, a monster that tried to attack villagers at the beginning of each year. The villagers would scare off the monster with the colour red, loud noises, and bright lights. Now every year, people decorate with red and gold and set off fireworks.

According to the Chinese zodiac, each year is also associated with one of the five elements – earth, wood, fire, metal, and water – so this year is the year of the wood snake. The last year of the wood snake was in 1965. 

The most common greeting for Chinese New Year in Mandarin is Xīnnián hǎo (shin-nyen haow), which translates to ‘New Year Goodness’. During new year, this greeting can replace the normal greeting ‘nǐ hǎo’.