Ringing in the Chinese New Year
22 January 2020
Chinese New Year will see London burst into life from January 25 with music, dancing, lots of yummy food and the lucky colour red!
LSE student Zhenkun Yang tells us what this special event means to him and how he’ll be celebrating at Helen Graham House.
Chinese New Year is also called Spring Festival. It’s one of the most significant festivals for Chinese people. It means different things in different parts of China, but for most people it’s all about getting together with family. It’s a pretty precious opportunity to get together with those you love.
It usually happens at the end of January but it's not always the case every year because it’s based on the lunar calendar. The lunar calendar is a bit complicated. It sometimes counts one specific month twice every year. In fact, it's so complicated that I haven’t quite figured it out yet!
People can take up to one month preparing for Spring Festival. There’ll be lots of food to enjoy, we’ll buy some nice clothes for each member of the family, and there’ll be gifts for friends and relatives.
There are so many things about Spring Festival to talk about, too much to explain here. If I had to use just a few words to describe it I’d say it’s about reunion with family.
This year, I'll celebrate with my classmates and friends here in the London. But, unfortunately, I still have classes so I guess we’ll just have dinner together or play some games. I will, of course, have a video call with my family in China.
I will really miss celebrating with my family and I will be thinking of them a lot during this time. I will definitely miss the delicious food cooked by my mum!