Chinese New Year 2012

Chinese New Year is the most important festivity for the Chinese people, everywhere they live, either Great Britain, The United States of America or Spain. They celebrate their New Year in China as well, jeje!! The Chinese New Year is also called the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year. In the Western countries our calendar changes on a exact date, from year to year. The Chinese New Year takes place between 1st January and 19th February. It is called the Lunar New Year because their months begin with the new moon. Every year has an animal's name. The animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. There is a Chinese legend that says that these 12 animals had a race, and their order is the one they arrived after the race. The Chinese Believe that a person born in a particular year has some of the characteristics of that animal. The celebrations may last for about two weeks. They begin with traditional house cleaning. The Chinese get rid of old and useless things. They do this to throw away the misfortunes of the past year. It is said that Christmas Day and New Year's Eve are the most important days for British people, and on Chinese New Year's Eve all family members enjoy a big, delicious meal. They usually eat fish because it stands for abundance. On New Year's Day all Chinese children wear new clothes with bright colours. Red is considered a lucky colour. In Britain a parade takes places in Soho, London. In Chinatown, Soho there are many Chinese people and they celebrate with dragon or lion dancers. Another huge Chinese community outside China is San Francisco. The first Chinese New Year was celebrated there on 21st February, 1851. It was the Gold Rush! This year is the Dragon year. The dragon is the most important figure of the Chinese New Year festivities and parades. The dragon is considered a lucky figure. A parade dragon can be 20 0r 30 metres long!Sixty or more men men move under a long cloth that represents the dragon's tail.