The Year of the Snake is here, and millions across Asia and the world are welcoming it with family, friends, prayers, and plenty of food. The Lunar New Year, coinciding with the first new moon of the lunar calendar, is a 15-day festival falling between January 29th and February 4th. For many, it's the most important festival of the year.
Lunar New Year Traditions Around the World
The first two days of the new year witness families and friends gathering for feasts, exchanging gifts, and the ubiquitous sight of cash-filled red envelopes. Celebrations are vibrant across the Koreas, Vietnam, Thailand, and other parts of Asia, each region adding its unique flavour to the festivities. In South Korea, the holiday brings families together to exchange gift money and well-wishes—although some well-wishes, often unsolicited advice and nagging questions, have become a source of amusement and subtle pleas for privacy on social media, reflecting the societal pressures to conform to specific life milestones.
South Korean Traditions: A Mix of Joy and Pressure
The “Holiday Nagging Menu” is a humorous but pointed example of these societal expectations; questions like “When are you going to get a job?” or “Isn’t it time to have a baby?” are common gripes, prompting some young people to put a price on such comments. Experts observe that these questions highlight the pressure to conform to a “normal” life, with expectations imposed at every stage. During this traditional holiday, there's a tendency to try to “catch up on neglected adulting,” leading to the well-intentioned but often unhelpful advice-giving. This trend highlights the tension between traditional expectations and the realities of modern, fragmented lives.
The Global Reach of Lunar New Year
For many in the Vietnamese diaspora, Tết is a time to reconnect with family and tradition—cheerful decorations, lots of food, and family gatherings. Recollections of childhood celebrations evoke the imagery of graceful pussy willow arrangements and red packets filled with money, adding to the festive atmosphere. The timing of Tết, falling in the first two months of the year, gives it the feel of a second Christmas for some families. In contrast, China's New Year’s Gala, an iconic TV show airing on New Year’s Eve, has become a subject of debate. Some question whether the modern-day celebrations in China still hold the charm and tradition they once cherished, and whether other countries are celebrating it “better.”
Online Discourse and Cultural Appropriation
The hashtag “Chinese Spring Festival is the world’s festival” went viral on Douyin, highlighting the global reach of the festival, yet many in China feel the festival’s traditional spirit is fading due to factors such as environmental restrictions on firecrackers. This is creating a divide online, as the use of the English term “Lunar New Year” has ignited a debate among different communities who celebrate this festival. Some argue that calling it anything other than “Chinese New Year” is disrespectful of its cultural origins, while others argue that using “Chinese New Year” is disrespectful to other cultures that also observe the lunisolar new year. This conflict highlights the complex nature of cultural identity and appropriation in a globalized world.
Unique Lunar New Year Celebrations
The Mongolian Lunar New Year, or Tsagaan Sar, celebrated on March 1st, features similar elements to other Lunar New Year traditions like auspicious food, family visits, and house cleaning. However, distinct traditions, such as worshipping at ovoo (stone heaps used as altars) and exchanging snuff bottles, set it apart. The giving and receiving of canned spam in South Korea, a delicacy introduced during the Korean War, is another unique tradition, though its popularity is slightly waning. Taiwan's extended nine-day holiday period for Lunar New Year in 2025, also demonstrates the economic significance of the holiday, encouraging tourism while simultaneously revealing a growing trend of Taiwanese choosing to travel abroad during this period.
A Continent's Celebrations, One Year's Journey
In Vietnam, Tết Nguyên Đán (Tết), lasting from January 28th to 31st, centers around traditional foods like bánh chưng and bánh tét. Beyond family traditions, Tết is a time for strengthening business relationships, though government efforts to curb excessive gift-giving persist. In Bangkok's Chinatown, Wat Leng Noei Yi temple is bustling with worshippers seeking blessings, though incense and candles are banned this year due to air pollution. The “fashionable aunt,” an icon on Chinese social media, represents independence and defiance of societal norms. The lion dances in Sydney, Australia, showcase cultural fusion and the importance of the event to communities of diverse heritage.
The Challenges of Modern Celebrations
The increasing number of elderly Hong Kongers celebrating the holiday alone, due to emigration, highlights the social impact of political changes. This contrasts with the massive travel undertaken across China during Chunyun, the 40-day travel period before and after Chinese New Year, with an estimated nine billion domestic trips expected in 2025, the world's largest annual mass migration. In South Korea, the surge in outbound travel during the holiday period poses a challenge for local businesses hoping for a boost in domestic consumption. The Year of the Snake is celebrated with playful imagery in China, portraying snakes as docile and cheerful, rather than fearsome, perhaps reflecting a desire for peace and good fortune in the year ahead. The cultural significance of the Lunar New Year, its traditions, its challenges, and its adaptability are woven into the fabric of the celebrations in 2025 and beyond. This vibrant tapestry of customs and perspectives shows why this festival continues to capture the hearts and minds of millions around the globe. We hope we were able to paint you a picture of how Lunar New Year is celebrated in various countries across Asia, as well as among Asian communities in the rest of the world. And from all of us – a very Happy Lunar New Year!
