1. Why do people think Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year?

2. How do the colour red and firecrackers play an important role in Chinese New Year?

3. How might Chinese New Year be similar to Christmas in Western cultures?

M at OK, so we are talking about Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival.

Now, of course, in my culture (I'm British), we have the important concept of New Year. And I think for most of Western Europe, January 1st is New Year's Day, so New Year's Eve is always the 31st of December. And that's every year. This never changes. But I've noticed that Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year on a different date every year, sometimes in January or sometimes in February. So, that's my first question: why does Chinese New Year fall on different dates each year?

J ocelyn OK, so the Western European New Year follows the solar calendar—the solar calendar follows the sun and always has 365 days. All the dates on the solar calendar always fall on the same date; that's why Christmas Day is always on December 25th. And the last day of the year is always on December 31st, and the first day of the year—New Year's Day—is always on January 1st.

Chinese people traditionally use a different calendar system—it's called the lunar calendar. We use this to calculate the dates of traditional festivals. The lunar calendar follows the cycle of the moon and has approximately, but not exactly, 354 days. Chinese New Year does fall on the same date each year in the lunar calendar, but this date is always different on the solar calendar. It's easy to imagine this if you compare two calendars side by side: the solar calendar has 365 days, and the lunar calendar has roughly 354 days. They don't match.

M at OK, so that's the difficult part done. I think I understand that. Now, let's think about the meaning of Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year. Now in Western Europe, I think most countries and cultures have different ways of celebrating New Year. We do different things on New Year's Eve and different things on New Year's Day, with some different customs. But I think the festival means the same thing. It's just the end of one calendar year, the end being December 31st, and then the start of the next, the new calendar year, January 1st. So other than the idea of starting a new year, the beginning of a new year, does Chinese New Year have any interesting or special meaning?

J ocelyn There are many traditional folk tales that tell us something about the origin of Chinese New Year. One very popular story talks about a mythical beast called Nian . Nian lived under the sea and in the mountains. Every year around the start of spring, Nian liked to come to the villages and steal all the villagers' food and crops. And sometimes, the beast would even eat people—the villagers and their children.

So, in ancient times, people were afraid of the beast around the time of Spring Festival. Nian was afraid of three things—the colour red, fire, and loud noises. That might explain why today, people decorate their homes with red. We light lanterns , and set off fireworks to safely enter the new year, and to protect ourselves from Nian or bad luck.

And also it's interesting that the Chinese character “年( Nian )” means “year” or “new year,” as well as the name of the beast.

M at OK, now that sounds quite scary—a monster who eats people. So what other rituals or traditions do you have for Chinese New Year's Eve or New Year's Day? Tell me about some of the most important rituals or traditions.

J ocelyn I think there are many rituals and traditions. People like to reunite with friends and family, and replace old things with new ones, and get ready for the arrival of a new year. As well as this, red pockets containing money are given to children as a gift. This represents good luck. And it's absolutely a taboo to say anything inauspicious —people mustn't talk about negative things at this time of year. So if you do, you'll have bad luck for the whole year.

M at Now, I'm sure that just like any other traditional or important Chinese festival, food is very important at New Year. Now from my experience, the family meal on New Year's Day is very important, and there are some dishes that are traditionally served at New Year. Now we are going to do some different episodes on Chinese food and will talk about food in detail in those episodes. But today, can you just tell me some special foods that Chinese people like to eat at New Year?

J ocelyn Well, China is such a big country, and we have so many special dishes in each region. But I think during Spring Festival, most regions share some food traditions.

Families stay awake all night to guard the year . We call it shou sui . At that time, people eat jiaozi ( dumplings ). And I think all Chinese families do this. And on New Year's Day, for breakfast, a lot of people eat sticky rice balls rather than jiaozi , especially in southern China. And for the main evening feast, we call it nian fan . We always have a special fish dish; we call it nian nian you yu .

Also, I think in different parts of China, people eat different kinds of nian gao , which is a special type of New Year cake.

M at So my last question is about time. Now, in my culture, New Year is not a long event. We have New Year's Eve—that's just one evening, December 31st. And then we have New Year's Day, just one day. Then that's it—it's finished. So for most people in my country, New Year is like a one-and-a-half-day festival. Half a day is the evening of 31st. Then we have the full day of January 1st. That's it. It's just like a one-and-a-half-day holiday. In my country, the day after New Year's Day is just a normal day, a normal working day. It's not even a holiday. So my question is: how long is the holiday, Chinese New Year or Chinese Spring Festival?

J ocelyn Spring Festival is actually the most important festival in Chinese culture. It begins with New Year's Eve on the night before the first day of the lunar year. All kinds of customs and rituals continue right up until the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the year.

So when Chinese people think about Spring Festival as a holiday, it's probably 15 days. But officially, most people can take about seven days off work.

M at Wow, that's so much longer than my idea of New Year. It sounds to me more like my idea of Christmas. So, I guess the Chinese idea of New Year is quite similar to the common Western European idea of Christmas, a long holiday; it's not like our idea of New Year. So I think what I am saying is Chinese Spring Festival is more like the Western European Christmas. Do you think that's true?

J ocelyn I think, in many ways, that's true. It's similar to Christmas, not in its origins or meaning, but in the way that people celebrate it, spending time with family and eating special traditional foods.

Christmas falls just before the solar New Year. And Chinese New Year marks the end of winter and the start of spring, which is why it is often called Spring Festival. So there are some similarities.