Article describing a celebration CHINESE NEW YEAR Article describing a celebration

Every year, between 21 January and 20 February, millions of people around the world celebrate Chinese New Year. The Chinese greeting for the New Year is “Wishing you luck and prosperity”. People decorate their homes with colorful pictures of flowers and fruits and hang red paper squares with gold Chinese letters

The gold Chinese characters represent luck, happinnes, prosperity or health. The colour of the Chinese New Year is red and it represents good luck and also fire.

People wear red for the New Year, write poems and wishes on red paper and give red give red envelopes with “lucky money” to children.

There are lots of colourful street parades. People wear dragon and lion costumes and dance through the streets. Families and friends come together for a special Chinese meal.

An important aspect of Chinese New Year is the animal connected with that year. The Chinese lunar calendar has a12-year cycle and each year is associated with one of 12 animals of the Chinese calendar. 2011 is the year of the cat.