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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Year of the Dragon: Lunar New Year Celebrations Around the World


Poster for Year of the Dragon
Festivities, Toronto, Ontario
This is the fourth and final post on the Asian Lunar New Year which begins a week from tomorrow on Monday January 23. Today’s post first indicates where the Lunar New Year is an official state holiday. The post then goes on to share the wide range of events taking place outside of those countries.



A TIME OF SLOW DOWNS AND   TIME OFFS

The Asian Lunar New Year is a public holiday with varying lengths in several countries.

Many Chinese, Bhutanese and Mongolian communities unofficially are closed for the entire New Year’s week (including the preceding or following weekends in many cases). The dates of observance for Tet in Vietnam and Seol in Korea may extend well beyond the official dates as well, especially in rural areas. This somewhat parallels the slowing or shutting down of work and school for Christmas in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Americas.

OFFICIAL STATE HOLIDAYS

The Asian New Year in various countries is officially recognized by the state in 15 countries, as follows:


Bhutan
Bhutan: Officially off for Losar but the dates are not officially specified. As some festivities last up to 15 days, this means that the time when things are open or closed is somewhat unclear for about two weeks.


Brunei
Brunei: The first Day of Lunar New Year is an official holiday. If that date lands on a Friday (the Islamic day off), the official observance is moved to the next day on Saturday. It is significant that the Chinese and Vietnamese in Brunei are only a minority, but the state still recognizes the first day of the Asian New Year as a sign of respect to an important minority population. 


Christmas Island

Christmas Island: Christmas Island is a territory of Australia, and not a full country. Still, since (unlike Australia), the territory recognizes the first two days of the Lunar New Year as an official holiday, it is listed here. If the holiday falls on a Sunday (the Christian day off), it is extended until the following Tuesday.


Hong Kong

Hong Kong: Though technically part of the PRC, Hong Kong has considerable autonomous control. The first three days of the Chinese New Year are official holidays. This is one day longer than on the Mainland.


Indonesia

Indonesia: The first day of the Lunar New Year is a holiday. It is significant that the Chinese and Vietnamese in Indonesia are only a minority, but the state still recognizes the first day of the Asian New Year as a sign of respect to an important minority population. 


Macau
Macau: Macau, like Hong Kong, is technically part of the PRC, but has considerable autonomous control. As with Hong Kong, the first three days of the Chinese New Year are official holidays. This is one day longer than on the Mainland.


Malaysia
Malaysia: The Chinese are Malaysia's largest minority and a major part of the overall society. As a sign of respect to that minority, Malaysia recognizes the first two days of Lunar New Year as official holidays.


Mongolia

Mongolia: Bituun (New Year's Eve) and first three days of Tsagaan Sar are official holidays.

North Korea


North Korea: The first day of Seol is an official holiday.


The Philippines

The Philippines: The first day of the Lunar New Year is a holiday, although the Chinese community is a minority within the country.

PRC
People's Republic of China: New Year’s Eve and the first two days of the New Year are holidays in the PRC. That said, the government usually officially makes the New Year a seven-day holiday. By doing so, the Chinese may have the days off but are then required to work during either the preceding or following weekend (or another weekend if agreed upon).  Businesses and schools, in turn, consider the two weekend days as being the weekdays that were missed. While this clarifies issues such as overtime pay or extra school days, this nonetheless makes predicting when something is actually shut down or open very difficult at this time of year. 

Note also that Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet all are part of the PRC but have different Lunar New Year official times off (as noted elsewhere in this list).
Taiwan
  
Taiwan: In Taiwan the Lunar New Year’s Eve and the first three days of the Chinese New Year are official days off. Additionally, the fifth day of the Chinese New Year is an official day off for the Dragon Boat Festival (or Duan Wu Festival). This effectively makes the fourth day of the New Year an unofficial day off.

Tibet
Tibet: Although Tibet is part of the PRC, Losar is officially recognized as a holiday for the first seven days of the Lunar New Year. This is done as a recognition of the cultural traditions of the Tibetan ethnic minority.

Singapore
Singapore: Singapore recognizes the first two days of the Lunar New Year as official days off. Approximately 74% of Singapore's population is Chinese in ethnicity.

South Korea

South Korea: The first three days of Seol are officially recognized as a state holiday.

Vietnam

Vietnam: The last two days of old year and first three days of Tet are officially recognized as state holidays.



 Year of the Dragon Celebrations Around the Globe

Poster for Year of the Dragon
Festivities in Utrecht, Holland
Of course, many of the most important parades and celebrations for Chinese New Year, as one would expect, taking place in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Taiwan. Similarly, Losar celebrations take place in Bhutan and Tibet; Tet celebrations in Vietnam, Seol celebrations in Korea and so on.

The emphasis here, though, is to show how widespread observances for the Asian Lunar New Year have become throughout the world and to encourage you to consider attending one of these if you live nearby.




Asian Countries Without Lunar Year Tradition

Malaysia






Celebrants at Penampang, Saba
on the island of Borneo


The Philippines


Manila's Chinese New Year Parade begins in Binondo.
The oldest Chinatown in the world, Binondo was already well established
as a trade center when the Spanish arrived in 1521, and remains
an active center of Filipino Chinese commerce and culture to this day.

Thailand








Nakon Sawon Chinese New Year Parade (left)
The Chinese community has been present in Thailand 
since the Ayutthaya Period (ca. 1350 CE) 






Australia







Chinese New Year festivities in Sydney
include fireworks over the harbor


Canada



Vancouver's Chinese New Year Parade
annually draws over 50,000 spectators
who watch its over 3000 participants
* Toronto, Ontario http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-community-volunteers-2012-Dragon-Chinese-New-Year-Celebration-W0QQAdIdZ341590534

* Vancouver, British Columbia    http://www.cbavancouver.ca/parade.html



                                                                                                       

The Netherlands




Rotterdam's Chinese New Year Parade

United Kingdom



Birmingham's activities take place at Arcadian Centre



Chinese New Year Parade at Trafalgar Square, London







United States




The Lunar New Year Parade in Flushing, Queens
is the New York area's largest with
over 4000 people marching annually 
* Flushing, Queens, New York http://queens.about.com/od/flushing/p/Chinese-New-Year.htm (this is actually the largest New York City area  Lunar New Year Parade).

* Houston, Texas   http://lunarnewyearhouston.com/


* Los Angeles, California  http://www.lagoldendragonparade.com/   


* Phoenix, Arizona http://phoenixchineseweek.org/



San Francisco's Chinese New Year Parade
is the largest one outside of Asia.
It is sponsored annually by Southwest Airlines.
* San Francisco, California  (the largest in the USA, with the parade this year on February 11)  http://www.chineseparade.com/   

* San Jose, California (Tet Parade) http://hoitetfairgrounds.org/history.php






* Sonoma County, California (Tet Parade) http://www.sonomavietnamese.org/

* Washington, D.C. http://chineseparadedc.com/  

Washington DC Chinese New Year Parade

Other Countries





The Paris Chinese New Year Parade is one of Europe's largest


CONCLUDING REMARKS

There are undoubtedly many celebrations that I have overlooked here. Please do let me know events that you know about and share them on this blog if you would like to do so before the New Year begins. Also, I will try to include them next year.

Happy Year of the Dragon!


CLIP ART SOURCES


Year of the Dragon around the globe: http://garcya.us/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/preview-91-200x200.jpg

Utrecht Year of the Dragon poster http://crtv.nl/readarticle.php?article_id=970

Celebrants at Penampang, Saba on the island of Borneo: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/01/08/28-lions-awaken-for-chinese-new-year/

Binondo, Manila parade: http://epicstreet.blogspot.com/2011/02/manila-chinese-new-year-2011.html
Birmingham parade: http://www.cnybirmingham.org.uk/

Sydney Chinese New Year Fireworks: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZbsLP5d7yh0/TU92FKZznNI/AAAAAAAAACM/Vsj5Q6XMYnk/s1600/CNY-Fireworks1.jpg

Rotterdam Parade: http://blog.habitatapartments.com/wp-content/upl/CNY-Rotterdam-2012.jpg

Vancouver Parade: http://vancouver.about.com/od/vancouverevents/p/chinesenewyear.htm

Flushing, Queens parade: http://queens.about.com/od/flushing/p/Chinese-New-Year.htm

Trafalgar Square London parade: http://www.toimg.net/managed/images/10173575/w482/h298/image.jpg

San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade: http://www.san-francisco-hotel-reservations.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/san-fran-chinese-new-year-parade.jpg

Washington DC Chinese New Year Parade http://0.tqn.com/d/dc/1/0/l/L/DSC01640.JPG

Paris New Year Parade http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Paris+Chinese+New+YEar&view=detail&id=FD0CA5B427ABD9225895D6826DFDF0B1C82081C6&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR

Last image Happy New Year: http://www.michiganmartialarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/HappyNewYear2012-Post.jpg

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