Chinese New Year on February 14: Celebrating Love, Family and Tradition

What comes to your mind when you think of February 14? For most of you, the answer will be: Valentine’s Day, love, flowers or chocolate. But for the people in China, February 14, 2010 will also mark the beginning of a new year, the year of the Golden Tiger.

Chinese New Year is sometimes also called “Spring Festival” or “Lunar New Year”. In fact, the new year in China begins the 1st day of the first lunar month. This year, it will fall on Valentine’s Day. The grand finale comes on the 15th day, the Lantern Festival.

Preparations for this unique 2 week’s festivities also begin way in advance: cleaning houses, doing Spring Festival shopping and returning to hometown to spend time with family and friends. The celebration then reaches its climax on New Year’s Eve.

That day, the whole family gathers to watch the CCTV Spring Festival Gala live show, which lasts up to 4.5 hours, while having dinner together. This gala complies with the good will of Chinese about family reunion, but also in conformity with the custom of observing the year out. In the past 30 years, Spring Festival Gala has been a great creation to “Chinese New Year Culture”.

Along with the Spring Festival Gala, the so-called “Spring Move” has also been a part of this culture. As the New Year gets underway, all cities and countries in China become emotional magnetic fields: people who were away are attracted to return to their hometown and the train and bus stations are jammed with people. This urge reflects and embodies the spiritual core of “Chinese New Year Culture”- family reunion.

After this insight into a great, human tradition, nothing remains but to wish all people in China a very Happy New Year 2010!

Collaboration: Sally Tao, ArcelorMittal China
Image: New Years ecard created by the Communications team in China