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The Spring Festival

The most important holiday in much of East and Southeast Asia, it ushers in a new year of the 12-animal zodiac with family reunions, red envelopes, lion dances, fireworks and feasts. Celebrations traditionally run for about fifteen days.

The zodiac

Each year is associated with one of twelve zodiac animals. The festival is celebrated by well over a billion people across China, Korea, Vietnam and diaspora communities worldwide.

The beast that made the holiday loud and red

Legend says the traditions began with Nian, a monster that crept out of the mountains every New Year's Eve to raid villages — until people discovered it feared three things: the color red, bright firelight and loud noise. Ever since, doors get dressed in red paper couplets, lanterns burn through the night and firecrackers rattle the streets to chase the old year's bad luck away. The legend still shapes the holiday's real-world footprint too: China's chunyun travel rush around the festival spans about 40 days, the largest annual human migration on Earth.

Bringing the festival home

The heart of the holiday is New Year's Eve: families clean the house beforehand to sweep out old luck (never on New Year's Day, which would sweep the new luck away), then share a reunion dinner — dumplings in the north, whole fish for abundance almost everywhere. Elders hand children red envelopes of lucky money, and hundreds of millions tune in to China's televised Spring Festival Gala, one of the most-watched broadcasts on the planet. Keep a lantern handy: the festivities close on day fifteen with the Lantern Festival, under the year's first full moon.

Quick facts

• Set by the lunar calendar, late January to mid-February
• Ushers in a new zodiac animal year
• Celebrated by well over a billion people
• Festivities traditionally last about 15 days
• China's chunyun travel rush around the holiday spans about 40 days — the world's largest annual human migration
• The 15th and final day is the Lantern Festival, held under the year's first full moon

Usher in the new year

Red envelopes ready, lanterns up, dumplings by the dozen.

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