The year of the Dragon begins on 23 January. There are 12 different animals representing a 12 year circle. Click here to find from the year you were born which sign you are.
The festival is celebrated grandly and extensively across the Chinese community around the world. Various cultural activities such as Fireworks Dragon Dancing, Lion Dancing and other traditional performances, are arranged in parks and streets in cities and towns.
A huge clean-up gets underway days before the New Year, when Chinese houses are cleaned from top to bottom. This ritual is supposed to sweep away all traces of bad luck. Doors and windowpanes are often given a new coat of paint, usually red, then decorated with paper cuts and couplets with themes such as happiness, wealth and longevity printed on them.
The eve of the New Year is perhaps the most exciting part of the holiday, due to the anticipation. Dinner is usually a feast of seafood and dumplings, signifying different good wishes. Delicacies include prawns, for liveliness and happiness, dried oysters (ho xi), for all things good, fish dishes or Yau-Yu to bring good luck and prosperity, Fai-chai (Angel Hair), an edible hair-like seaweed to bring prosperity, and dumplings boiled in water (Jiaozi) signifying a long-lasting good wish for a family.
It is customary to wear something red as this colour is meant to ward off evil spirits. After dinner, families sit up for the night playing cards, board games or watching television programmes dedicated to the occasion which last till after midnight. At midnight, fireworks light up the sky.
On the day itself, an ancient custom called Hong Bao, meaning Red Packet, takes place. This involves married couples giving children and unmarried adults money in red envelopes. Then the family begins to say greetings from door to door, first to their relatives and then to their neighbours.
The end of the New Year is marked by the Festival of Lanterns, which is a celebration with singing, dancing and lantern shows. The Lantern Festival dates back to shrouded legends of the Han Dynasty over 2000 years ago.
In one such legend, the Jade Emperor in Heaven was so angered at a town for killing his favorite goose, that he decided to destroy it with a storm of fire. However, a good-hearted fairy heard of this act of vengeance, and warned the people of the town to light lanterns throughout the town on the appointed day. The townsfolk did as they were told, and from the Heavens, it looked as if the village was ablaze. Satisfied that his goose had already been avenged, the Jade Emperor decided not to destroy the town.
From that day on, people celebrated the anniversary of their deliverance by carried lanterns of different shapes and colors through the streets on the first full moon of the year, providing a spectacular backdrop for lion dances, dragon dances, and fireworks.
Many Chinese students associations in the UK have planned to celebrate the Chinese New Year, not only for their Chinese students, but also to cultivate a global experience among their international and UK students. If your unions are organising any event for Chinese New Year, please remember to take lots of photos and send it to us here.