How do countries celebrate Lunar New Year?

(Baonghean.vn) - Like Vietnam, many countries in the world consider the traditional New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, an important holiday of their country. Especially for countries in the Asian region, this is considered an extremely important holiday for their people.

1. China

Chinese culture was formed 3,500 years ago, so it is considered one of the countries with many mysteries as well as interesting things for pilgrimages and tourism. The powerful country has a stormy economic development speed but has not been distorted or lost the rich national cultural features that have been formed and preserved for thousands of years, especially on the occasion of the Lunar New Year.

Houses and streets are filled with red during Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year is the most important holiday of the year. Starting from the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, Chinese people all over the world return to their hometowns to celebrate the New Year and reunite with their families.

The Chinese New Year is celebrated as “Guo Nian”, where Nian means year. However, according to legend, Nian is the name of a monster that always appears on the last day of the old year to harass people, and one year people discovered that this monster was very afraid of the color red and loud noises.

Lion dance during Chinese New Year.

Since then, every year-end and New Year, Chinese people often decorate their houses by hanging red parallel sentences, red lanterns with red paper and setting off firecrackers to wish for a happy New Year and a peaceful New Year. People write wishes on red paper and stick them on the door, cut patterned paper to express hope and stick it on the window, making a kind of "wrapping cake" - implying wrapping blessings inside. Before the New Year, Chinese people also clean their houses to "dispel bad luck".

During the New Year, Chinese people also have the habit of gathering together to prepare delicious dishes to worship their ancestors. Each year in the Chinese calendar corresponds to an animal, so in the year of a certain animal, people often avoid eating that animal at the beginning of the year.

2. South Korea

In Korea, the New Year officially begins on the first day of the first lunar month. But from the last days of the lunar year, the Tet atmosphere has filled every street and every family. On the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, Korean families also clean their houses thoroughly.

On the night before New Year's Eve, Koreans often take a hot bath to cleanse themselves; wear traditional hanbok or their best clothes to perform ancestral worship rituals. On New Year's Eve, Koreans burn bamboo sticks in their homes to ward off evil spirits. Koreans believe that no one sleeps on New Year's Eve because if they do, their eyelashes will turn white and their minds will be less clear when they wake up the next morning.

Korean New Year's Eve Tray.

The Korean New Year's Eve offering tray usually has more than 20 dishes, including ttok-kuk (a type of noodle soup made from beef or chicken) and spicy kimchi. Koreans believe that eating ttok-kuk on New Year's Day means "eating" another year. The Korean New Year's Eve offering tray cannot be complete without rice cake soup (tteokguk) - a soup that is meant to bring good luck in the future. The soup is made by cooking many slices of rice cakes. There are also other dishes such as dried fish, dried beef, steamed buns, fruits, vegetables, dried persimmons and traditional cakes.

On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Koreans have the custom of bathing, wearing traditional clothes, drinking gui balli sool, a type of wine that improves hearing, and then performing an ancestral worship ceremony called Chesa, which is performed by the eldest son of the family. Offerings and rice wine are placed on a table in the middle of the house. On it are also placed ancestral tablets written on paper that will be burned after the worship. The head of the family lights incense, prays to the ancestors, and the whole family bows and performs the ceremony.

Koreans wearing their traditional ethnic clothes play "tuho" (arrow throwing) on ​​Lunar New Year's Day.

After the Chesa ceremony is the Seba ceremony, children and grandchildren bow to their grandparents and parents to wish them a happy new year and good luck. Grandparents and parents will reward them with money, gold, jade or some other precious gift depending on the age and position of the child or grandchild in the family as well as the conditions and circumstances of that family.

After that, the whole family gathers to enjoy the food that was just offered to the ancestors. Next, they go to wish their neighbors and relatives a happy new year, visit their ancestors' graves, and go on spring trips to famous places, scenic spots, or to pagodas.

On New Year’s Day, a straw shovel (called Bok jo ri) is indispensable in front of the door of a Korean house, with the meaning of scooping up the rice that has fallen outside the door, receiving blessings all year round. In the past, in Korea, there were people who sold “Bok jo ri” on the morning of the first day of the New Year. They were considered to bring good luck for the new year. Whoever called the “Bok jo ri” vendor into the house as soon as possible would receive good luck. Nowadays, there are no such vendors anymore. “Bok jo ri” is bought in stores before New Year’s Day.

3. Singapore

Singaporeans take the traditional Lunar New Year celebration very seriously. Taking place at the same time as the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival in Singapore usually takes place with 3 outstanding events: Lantern Festival, Singapore River Hongbao Festival and Chingay Street Festival along with many other activities.

Lantern festival welcomes the new year in Singapore.

The Lantern Festival is the first activity of the Chunjie Festival month, taking place in Chinatown - the center of the Lunar New Year Festival in Singapore. The Lantern Night opens at a specific time depending on each year, but usually outside of mid-January and about 15-20 days before the first day of the Lunar New Year with decorative images corresponding to the animals symbolizing that year according to the rule of the 12 zodiac animals.

On this occasion, Singaporeans go on spring outings with many different activities such as going to temples to pray for good fortune at the beginning of the year and the whole new year, or sightseeing in flower gardens, parks, historical sites, cultural attractions, or entertainment areas throughout the country...

Chingay festival atmosphere during Lunar New Year in Singapore.

The Chingay Parade in Singapore usually starts on the first Saturday of the new year in the Marina Bay area and ends on the full moon day of the first lunar month, which is also the end of the festival. This activity attracts thousands of tourists and locals to join the parade on the streets.

The name Chingay in Chinese means "the art of costume and masquerade". This is a unique activity for Singaporeans to have fun and strengthen solidarity among the ethnic groups in the country and with ethnic communities around the world.

During the 15 days from New Year’s Eve to the 15th of January, spring celebrations are held all over Singapore, where people visit relatives and friends and hold parties. Parents and married relatives will give “hong baos” (lucky money in red envelopes) to unmarried relatives as a way to wish them good luck.

4. Mongolia

Mongolia is one of the few countries that celebrates the Lunar New Year like Vietnam. In Mongolia, the two most important and anticipated holidays are the White Month Festival (locally called Tsagaan Sar) in January and the Naadam Festival in July.

Mongolians also have the habit of cleaning their houses to welcome Tet.

These days, people “cleanse” both their bodies and souls to welcome a new, better beginning. The Mongolian New Year’s Eve ritual is to wash dishes with horse milk.

At the moment of New Year's Eve, Mongolians practice the custom of drinking tea at the beginning of the year. First, they make tea, pour the first cup, bring it to the front yard and sprinkle it in all four directions. The second cup of tea is for the host, then the other family members in turn.

Mongolian New Year's Eve Tray.

Traditional foods during Tsagaan Sar are dairy products, buuz (like dumplings), lamb, beef, goat's milk, rice with curds; or rice with raisins, roasted lamb, horse meat, buuz, fermented mare's milk or vodka mixed with milk.

When meeting each other on New Year's Day, Mongolians wish each other: "May your sheep be fat." In this land, sheep outnumber people. Most of the Mongolian New Year's dishes are made from sheep's milk and on the table there is always grilled lamb and wonton noodles.

5. North Korea

The New Year in North Korea is called Seol and on this occasion, people often visit relatives and friends to wish them a happy new year. What is special about Seol days is that when visiting relatives and friends, people often bring a half-liter bottle of wine, go from house to house and drink a cup at each house. This action means wishing the homeowner a healthy and happy new year.

That is why it is common to see men with red faces from alcohol going from house to house in North Korea during the New Year.

Although alcohol is rare, North Korean people still try to save up alcohol throughout the year to celebrate the New Year.

Although they are both located on the Korean Peninsula, the New Year customs of South Korea and North Korea still have some differences. For example, while South Koreans like to eat rice cake soup on New Year's Day, North Koreans like to eat songpyeon, a type of rice cake shaped like a crescent moon, representing their philosophy of life: "The moon wanes and then becomes full again" as life changes and revolves.

And like other Asian countries, during these days, Korean people always have special rituals to remember their ancestors.

People enjoy Tet holiday near Kim Il Sung statue.

After the New Year blessing ceremony, children rush out into the streets to play together. Boys fly kites and spin tops together; girls play seesaws or jump rope together. Children stay indoors while adults play cards or traditional Korean games. Like other East Asian countries, New Year in Korea is a time for family reunions.

North Koreans don’t have many places to go during Seoul, they usually go to their relatives, teachers, friends or go to lay flowers at the Kim Il Sung statue and take pictures there. But it’s worth noting that you won’t see men and women together. Laws and prejudices in North Korea prevent men and women from walking together or dating in public, and lovers or married couples don’t even dare to hold hands in public.

Peace

(Synthetic)