If you celebrated the New Year on January 1st, then you celebrated the new year according to the Gregorian Calendar which is a Solar Calendar based on the time required for Earth to travel once around the Sun.
Though the Gregorian Calendar is the most widely used calendar, many countries still celebrate holidays based on a Lunar Calendar that measures time based on the different phases of the moon. The Lunar New Year is one of these holidays!
Lunar New Year (also called Chinese New Year, Tết, or Spring Festival) is typically celebrated in China, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet and other Asian countries.
The Lunar New Year celebrations can last 15 days and begin with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and end on the first full moon of the lunar calendar. Because the celebrations are based on the cycles of the moon, the exact dates change from year to year but usually start somewhere between January 21 and February 20.
In 2021 the Lunar New Year begins on February 12th and the celebrations last from February 11th to February 17th.
In Chinese culture, each year is also assigned an animal meaningful in Chinese folklore and the Chinese Zodiac. There are 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac so the animals repeat every 12 years and people are said to take on characteristics of the animals associated with their birth year.
2021 is the year of the Ox and past Ox years include 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, and 2009. In Chinese folklore the Ox is known to be strong, reliable, and fair!
Check out the booklists below to read and learn even more about the tradtions of the Lunar New Year!
Non-Fiction About the Lunar New Year:
Picture Books About the Lunar New Year:
Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica