Every winter, Asian communities around the world ring in the Lunar New Year with carnivals, food, family gatherings, parades and more.
Here's what to know about the holiday and what to expect in the year to come.
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What does Lunar New Year celebrate?
Lunar New Year — celebrated as the Spring Festival in China, Tet in Vietnam and Seollal in South Korea — marks the arrival of spring and the beginning of the lunisolar calendar, according to the National Museum of Asian Art.
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When is Lunar New Year 2025?
This year, Lunar New Year begins Jan. 29.
Because the lunar calendar is based on the phases of the moon, the beginning of the year happens on a different day each year. Each month begins with a new moon, and the new year begins on the new moon closest to the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Usually, that puts the holiday between January 21 and February 20.
Each year, the celebration lasts for 15 days.
Who celebrates Lunar New Year?
While the holiday is celebrated most widely in China, Vietnam, South Korea and other East Asian countries, other places with significant Chinese populations, like the United States, celebrate it as well.
How do you celebrate Lunar New Year?
Traditionally, each day of the two-week-long holiday comes with its own set of rituals, but there are many different ways to celebrate Lunar New Year.
Communities often come together for parades, fireworks, music and carnivals in the days following the New Year.
At home, families decorate windows with red paper cuttings, trim doors with couplets expressing their wishes for the new year and place fruits and flowers around the house in the weeks leading up to the holiday. Many also clean and cut their hair in an attempt to wipe away the previous year's bad luck. Doing so during the new year celebration is believed to negate any good luck the new year might bring.
Additionally, families often give each other gifts. Young children and unmarried people are given small red envelopes filled with money, symbolizing the gift of wealth and good fortune.
What kind of food do you eat on Lunar New Year?
On Lunar New Year's Eve, many people eat fish, which represents abundance and good fortune. On the final day of the holiday, known as the Lantern Festival, people eat sweet rice balls, known as tangyuan, which signify unity.
Other popular celebratory foods include golden spring rolls and dumplings, which are said to bring prosperity, leafy greens for wealth, and noodles, symbolizing the wish for a long and healthy life.
Which year of the Chinese Zodiac is it?
This year is the Year of the Snake.
Each year honors one of the 12 animals listed in the Chinese Zodiac calendar cycle: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog or pig. Each year is believed to bring the characteristics associated with its corresponding animal.
According to Chinese legend, a god once beckoned all animals to bid him farewell before his departure from earth, but only 12 listened. Those 12 are now honored in the Chinese Zodiac.
The Vietnamese Zodiac is slightly different, celebrating the cat instead of the rabbit and the buffalo instead of the ox. Other Asian cultures also have varied versions of the Zodiac.
What does the Year of the Snake mean?
Regarded as "little dragons" In Chinese culture, snakes represent spirituality, reproduction, longevity, wealth, wisdom and happiness.
Ancient Chinese culture viewed snakes in both positive and negative ways. Snakes were often associated with the yin, representing darkness, dampness, poison and femininity. On the other hand, they were often viewed as protectors of the home, and harming them was believed to bring bad luck.