Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year posts walk a reader through the most important festival in the Chinese calendar, which lasts for fifteen days from the new moon. Articles cover the lunar date that drifts between late January and mid February, the family reunion dinner on the eve, the cleaning of the house in the days before, why scissors and brooms are put away on day one, the long string of red envelopes from elders to children, the lion and dragon dances and the lantern festival on day fifteen. There are also notes on regional dishes and on the travel chaos of the spring festival migration.