Happy Chinese New Year! Everything you need to know about the Year of the Rat - Today News

Thanks for watching my video. If you like my videos, please subscribe to the channel to receive the latest videos Videos can use content-based copyright law contains reasonable use Fair Use (https://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/). For any copyright, please send me a message.    Happy Chinese New Year!    Today people in China - and around the world - are celebrating the first day of the Lunar Calendar. This year heralds the arrival of the Year of the Rat and people will be enjoying New Year’s Day with family, food and fireworks.  Workers get between seven and 12 days off to celebrate the 15-day event. New Year’s Day is considered the most important of that festival with people across China visiting parents and grandparents.  Chinese New Year comes with a number of traditions and superstitions too: for example people refrain from eating meat while doing laundry and taking medicine on New Year’s Day itself are both considered unlucky. What is Chinese New Year?  Chinese New Year is all about celebrating the first day of the  Lunar Calendar. This means the date changes each year because the festival revolves around the appearance of the new moon between 21 January and 20 February. Which animal represents this year?  2020 is the Year of the Rat which begins on Saturday 25 January.  In total there are 12 animals which make up the signs of the Chinese zodiac including dragon, monkey and rabbit.  Chinese superstition suggests that the year you meet your zodiac sign is an unlucky one with a variety of hardships coming your way. This is bad news for people born in a Year of the Rat (1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008 and 2020). How is Chinese New Year celebrated?  Families will clean and prepare their homes on New Year’s Eve to get rid of anything that could bring them bad luck over the forthcoming year. That evening they will come together for a ‘reunion dinner’ where they commemorate the end of the current year in a meal that’s so important it’s compared to Thanksgiving in the USA.  A lot of families stay up until midnight to see the arrival of New Year’s Day with the variety show ‘CCTV New Year Gala’ entertaining people from 8pm-12:30am throughout the evening. In 2018 a total of 700 million people tuned in.  To help ward off any evil spirits that might be lurking, people set off fireworks and firecrackers at midnight on Chinese New Year to make as much noise as possible.  On the first day of Chinese New Year - also known as the Spring Festival - people abstain from bathing, cleaning or doing anything else that could wash away good fortune. They do however visit parents and grandparents to show their appreciation for older generations. When does Chinese New Year end?  Celebrations last 15 days. Each day of the Spring Festival is reserved for different traditions and religious customs. The Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the year marks the end when people release lanterns which symbolise letting go of the past and preparing for a