What are you doing on Thursday, Feb. 19?  Clear your calendar, here’s a second chance to start fresh in 2015 with the Chinese New Year, celebrated since the 20^th century in China and around the world.

In addition to celebrating New Year’s Day on Jan. 1, the Chinese also celebrate the Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival. In China, the New Year is looked forward to all year round, and still remains the most important holiday. The Chinese New Year date is calculated according to the Chinese Lunar calendar. For those celebrating, every year is represented by a specific zodiac animal. For instance, 2014 was the horse, 2015 will be represented by a goat, and 2016 by a monkey.

During the Spring Festival, cultural activities are participated in such as ancestor worship and dragon dancing. The towns are decorated in the color red. Hanging red lanterns and pictures are seen everywhere. Due to this New Year‘s zodiac animal being the goat, goat decorations are also placed throughout towns. Many superstitions are followed in order to have good luck for the New Year, such as wearing red underwear to ward off bad luck for the New Year.

On the Chinese New Year, household and heavenly deities are honored along with ancestors.  When preparing for this special day, family is the main focus. Business life comes to a stop this year from Feb. 19-24, and most people will be off work.

During this time, houses are cleaned top to bottom in order to get rid of ominous breaths that may have been collected throughout the previous year. This is called “huiqi”, and the cleaning is meant to pacify the gods that check up on households. A New Year’s Eve dinner called the “Reunion Dinner” and is the most important meal of the year. Special foods are eaten such as fish, which is believed to bring wealth for the coming year.

To end the New Year, a Lantern Festival is held on the last day, and those who traveled return home. The ending date varies for the Chinese New Year depending on which year is coming up. Make sure to catch the next flight to China to see the beautiful New Year!