Chinese New Year begins on 16 February 2018 and will be a public holiday in several countries in East Asia. So if you are planning for import orders the last day to order will be December 20th but goods via Ocean would not deliver until March or April 2018, depending on the factory and the type of item ordered.
Each year in the Chinese calendar is represented by one of twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac. 2018 will be the year of the Brown Earth Dog.
The Chinese New Year is celebrated by almost a sixth of the world’s population and is very similar to the Western one, swathed in traditions and rituals.
Preparations tend to begin a month from the date of the Chinese New Year (similar to a Western Christmas), when people start buying presents, decoration materials, food and clothing. A huge clean-up gets underway days before the New Year, when Chinese houses are cleaned from top to bottom, to sweep away any traces of bad luck, and doors and windowpanes are given a new coat of paint, usually red.
The eve of the New Year is perhaps the most exciting part of the event, as anticipation creeps in. Here, traditions and rituals are very carefully observed in everything from food to clothing.
Rituals include cleaning the house, putting up new posters of “door gods” on front doors, fireworks before the family union dinner, which should be at least 10 course meal with a whole fish entrée symbolizing the abundance of the coming year.
It’s usual to wear something red as this colour is meant to ward off evil spirits – but black and white are out, as these are associated with mourning. After dinner, the family sit up for the night playing cards, board games or watching TV programs dedicated to the occasion. At midnight, the sky is lit up by fireworks.
In China, many people will travel back from the cities to their home towns. This results in the world’s largest annual human migration.
Traditional foods eaten during the Spring festival are fish (the Chinese word for ‘fish’ sounds like the word for ‘surplus,’ so the eating of fish is supposed to bring a surplus of money and good luck); Chinese dumplings (as their shape is said to be like that of silver ingots, which were used as money in ancient Chinese); spring rolls; rice cakes and rice balls.
The end of the New Year is marked by the Festival of Lanterns, which is a celebration with singing, dancing and lantern shows.
