All the best for the New Year!
It seems as if it’s getting late to say that: January has come and gone. But in reality, we can keep saying it: Chinese New Year was February 1st. The Chinese New Year marks the highlight of the Chinese lunar calendar. The festive preparations start on Jan 24 and last throughout the “Little Year” until New Year’s Day. The celebrations of the New Year go on for 11 days and end with the Lantern Festival. Many Chinese travel to be with their families during this time of community and tradition. It seems well worth the trip, considering that the festivities last for 3 weeks easily. Chinese New Year is celebrated with fireworks. The noise drives out the spirits of the past, and the red wrapping paper promises good fortune for the future.
If you stay in the region, you can celebrate Parsi New Year’s Day in India on March 20. Parsi is based on the Zoroastrian belief, the oldest monotheistic religion that originated in ancient Persia.
On April 1, the school and fiscal year changes in Japan. That is the time that the cherry trees are in bloom, the best time of the year for the Japanese. They gather in the parks and have picnics. The cherry blossoms represent the glamourous but generally short life of a Samurai warrior.
Just two weeks later, the Hindu celebrate the New Year as the day of the spring equinox, the day that day and night are equally long. The Hindi word for ‘equal’ is Vishu, so Indian New Year’s is also called Vishu Day. It is celebrated by collecting foods and items on a silver plate that all represent health and prosperity. They believe that if these are the first things you see in the New Year, it’ll bring the same health and prosperity to the family in the house.
It takes another couple of months until the Islamic New Year on July 30. Unlike our Gregorian calendar, the Islamic calendar is based on the Islamic lunar calendar, which counts 12 days less than our year, so all Islamic celebrations move throughout our year. Also, the year count is different in the Islamic calendar because it starts in 622 AD, the year that prophet Mohammed moved from Mecca to Medina and started spreading his religion. As a result, they currently live in the year 1443.
People who follow the Jewish religion also live in a different year. Although the Old Testament is shared between the Christian and the Jewish belief systems, Jesus Christ is considered a mere prophet by Jews, not the messiah. They live in the year 5783,
and the new year starts on September 25. Rosh HaShanah is typically a 2-day event in the fall, celebrated by prayers, festive meals, and the blowing of a ceremonial trumpet made from a ram’s horn, which is known as the Shofar.
It seems that we’d be celebrating all year round if we observed the New Year’s Days of all cultures and religions. Keep wishing everybody all the best for the New Year because it’s probably true somewhere in the world.