Chinese New Year

Half the joy of Chinese New Year is in the saying of it. The festival comes with a rich vocabulary of greetings and four-character blessings, each tuned to a particular wish, a particular person, or a particular dialect. Knowing the right words, and to whom to say them, turns a […]

The red envelope is the most recognisable exchange of the Chinese New Year, and also the one outsiders most often get wrong. Hand over the wrong amount, use the wrong hand, or pick a number with a four in it, and a well-meant gift can land awkwardly. This guide explains […]

On New Year’s Eve in northern China, the whole family gathers around the table not to eat but to make: to roll, fill, and pleat hundreds of dumplings to be boiled at the stroke of midnight. Jiaozi are the defining food of the northern New Year, shaped like the gold […]

No celebration in the world leans on food quite like Chinese New Year. The festival table is not just generous; it is a coded message of hopes for the year ahead, where almost every dish earns its place by sounding like, or looking like, something auspicious. Learn the meanings and […]

In the weeks before Chinese New Year, homes, shops, and whole streets turn red and gold. The transformation is not just festive decoration; almost every item carries a specific wish for the year ahead, a coded language of luck written in paper, cloth, and light. From the couplets pasted beside […]

Chinese New Year is a festival of doing the right things, and a surprising number of not doing the wrong ones. The first days of the year are believed to set the tone for the twelve months ahead, so a long list of taboos has grown up around them, each […]

Chinese New Year, known in China as the Spring Festival (春节, Chūnjié), is the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar and the largest annual celebration on Earth by the number of people taking part. For roughly a fifth of humanity it marks the turn of the lunisolar year, the […]