Celebrating Chinese New Year
Brian Hennessy. Cairns, Australia. January, 2026
Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival as it is known locally, is China’s longest and most important festival. It begins with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and ends on the first full moon, 15 days later. In 2026, Spring festival will commence on February 17.
Every year has a zodiac animal: the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Positive traits of these animals are bestowed on people born in that year.
This year, 2026 is the Year of the Horse
Strengths
Horses are leaders who rarely accept defeat, so they can motivate themselves to put up an active fight in everything they do. This can come off as tenacity, endurance, stubbornness, or even foolhardiness in certain situations.
Once Horse matures and learns to harness this energy, they’ll be unstoppable since they’re agile and shrewd thinkers who innately understand human nature. They’re also principled, so their efforts will be put toward a good cause.
Celebrating Chinese New Year
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How do Chinese people celebrate Spring Festival?
Prior to Spring Festival in China, houses are cleaned in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and make way for incoming good luck. Windows and doors are decorated with red paper-cuts and characters spelling out themes of good fortune, happiness, wealth, and longevity. Further, any outstanding debts are repaid to make sure that the New Year begins with a clean slate.
And all over the country, millions of relatives will travel long distances in overcrowded buses and trains (and by air) to return to their hometown and reunite with family.
Chinese people value family – the Confucian bedrock of this ancient society – and at the beginning of Spring Festival the extended family will gather together for a celebratory banquet.
After the meal, everyone will relax by playing mah-jong, eating leftovers from the banquet, and watching variety shows on TV. Later on, absent relatives will be visited, money will be given in red envelopes, and firecrackers and rockets will be lit in order to banish any bad spirits which might have been hanging around.
During this time individuals will speak kind words to each other because they believe that bad words spoken at the beginning of the year may attract bad luck for the rest of the year. It is important to celebrate the new year with correct behaviour and good intentions.
Xin nian kuaile (Happy New Year); and Gong xi fa cai (Hope you will be rich).
Happy Chinese New year to everybody!
Brian (老布, Laobu)
(28/01/25)
Published in the Cairns Post.