Celebrating Chinese New Year in Modern China

I am starting the New Year if 2020 with a post on Chinese New Year, otherwise known as Spring Festival. Before I tell you about Celebrating Chinese New Year in Modern China, you might want to check out my list of Gift Ideas for Chinese New Year.

So, how is Chinese New Year celebrated these days?

1. Everyone is usually watching TV on New Year’s Eve. There is always a huge gala on the main CCTV-1 channel, plus local channels broadcast their own celebrations.

2. People still go to the flower market and prefer to have fresh flowers in the house. The only difference is that many choose to buy flower pots they continue to care for throughout the year (or years).

3. The front door decorations have become more fancy and sophisticated. You can get such a wide variety of them on a local shopping website Taobao.

4. You can spend time preparing own traditional food or get it packaged/frozen if you are running out of time or were unable to go back to your hometown for this big holiday. By the way, hot pot is a preferred choice of food in many households, despite it being native to one or another province.

5. Traditional Red Envelopes for single people and children now come in digital format on a local social network called WeChat. Within WeChat groups you can also send an envelope meant for several people and people “grab” either equal, or random amount to their WeChat wallets.

Also, around midnight of the New Year’s Eve multiple WeChat groups have a red envelope game where everyone is sending envelopes and getting as many as possible.

6. You won’t find people outdoor until around midnight when the fireworks start. Here is a fun thing – there are also e-crackers now, that are still noisy but environmentally friendlier in term of no smoke pollution from them.

The rest of traditions are pretty much what you have probably already read about.

Do you celebrate Chinese New Year? If yes, share with me how!
新年快乐

Chinese New Year | Multicultural Kid Blogs

Welcome to our sixth annual Chinese New Year blog hop! Lunar New Year, more commonly known as Chinese New Year, starts on January 25 this year. It is the beginning of the Year of the Rat, and we have lots of great ideas for celebrating it with kids! Don’t miss our series from last year, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015, and you can find even more on our Chinese New Year Pinterest board: