This year, Saturday, February 10, 2024 marks the start of the Lunar New Year. Each year the date of the Lunar New Year is determined by the phase of the moon, and the lunar calendar is named for one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac (derived from ancient Chinese folklore). Repeating on a rotating basis, these 12 animals are: the rat, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the goat, the monkey, the rooster, the dog, and the pig.
To this day, Chinese holidays are governed by its traditional lunisolar calendar. Lunar New Year was rebranded by Republic of China leaders as “Spring Festival” when they officially adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1912. Today, Spring Festival is celebrated in China and Hong Kong; Lunar New Year is also celebrated in South Korea, Tibet, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and places with large Chinese populations. Its themes are reunion and hope, and is a time for families to gather with plenty of food and often loud celebrations.
For Chinese people, Spring Festival lasts for 40 days and has multiple sub-festivals and rituals. The New Year itself is a seven-day-long state holiday, and on the eve of the new year, Chinese families traditionally celebrate with the year’s most important meal, a reunion dinner traditionally held in the house of the most senior family member.
In China, people customarily light firecrackers, which are thought to chase away the fearful monster “Nian”. The color red is used in clothing and decorations to ensure prosperity, and people exchange “hongbao” red envelopes filled with lucky cash (mainly for children and unmarried adults). In Korea, people make rice cake soup and honor their ancestors during Korean Lunar New Year, “Seollal”. During the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, “Tet”, flowers play an important role in the celebrations.
See in the link below what animal is associated with your birth year. Does your personality match the description?
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/celebrations/article/which-chinese-new-year-animal-are-you-like?