Happy New Year to all my friends and colleagues in China.
Chinese New Year's Day is the
first day of the Chinese lunar calendar. But the date is different each year on
the Gregorian (internationally-used) calendar, between January 21th and
February 20th. In 2016 it's Monday February 8th.
Chinese New Year is officially
celebration for seven days and this year will be from February 7–13, 2016.
It's a public holiday for
Chinese. Usually people have 7 consecutive days off from Chinese New Year's Eve
to the sixth day after Chinese New Year's Day.
Officially only the first
three days of Chinese New Year (February 8–10, 2016) are statutory holiday.
Chinese New Year's Eve and three more days are always added to give seven
consecutive days of holiday. These four extra days are taken from weekends: the
two weekend days closest to the statutory holiday are included, while the
Saturday before (February 6, 2016) and the Sunday after (February 14, 2016) are
worked.
The New Year,
also known as the Spring Festival, is marked by the lunisolar Chinese calendar,
so the date changes from year to year.
The
festivities usually start the day before the New Year and continue until the
Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the New Year.
Each Chinese
New Year is characterized by one of 12 animals which appear in the Chinese
zodiac. The Chinese zodiac is divided into 12 blocks (or houses) just like its
western counterpart, but with the major difference being that each house has a
time-length of one year instead of one month.
