Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in the minds of most Chinese People. It is the equivalent of Thanksgiving in the United States. Chinese New Year is a time to get together with family and celebrate the coming of Spring. According to legends, Chinese New Year began when a monster called the Nian Shou (literal translation is Year Beast) that lived in a mountain began terrorizing inhabitants of a village next to the mountain. On the eve of the Spring Festival every year, it ate the inhabitants of the village. It seemed to have a craving for young children. Every year everyone would be terrified. Then one day an old man came. He said that he could rid the village of the beast once and for all. No one believed him. On the day before the spring festival, he hung up couplets in front of his door and let off firecrackers. The next morning everyone was surprised to see that not a single person was eaten. Thus, began the tradition of setting off fireworks and hanging couplets on doors. Of course, there is no evidence that the Nian Shou existed. Chinese New Year is to have originated from China under the reign of Emperor Yao which was from 2333 B.C.E. to 2234 B.C.E. when Emperor Yao gathered people for one day each year to honor the earth and the sky. Chinese New Year break typically lasts for seven days maybe a little bit longer depending on where you live. Chinese New Year can happen anytime between the middle of January and the middle of February. During the holidays, Chinese people will hang red banners with words written on them called couplets. There is one hung on each side of the door. The words on them are supposed to match for example the first word on the right is up then the first word on the left is down. The number of words on each side must also be the same. People usually write well wishes for the upcoming year as wishes for good luck. On the eve of Chinese New Year in China people especially young children stay up late. Their reason of doing so is that if they stay up late then their parents will live longer lives. Typically, they stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning or sometimes for the whole evening. In China there is a zodiac quite similar to one used by Americans but there are two notable differences. The first is that the Chinese zodiac symbolizes years not months and the second is that the Chinese zodiac is made up of animals. There are twelve animals and they each symbolize a year. The order is rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. These animals are not only used to represent years but can also influence a person’s personality, career, capability, marriage, and fortune. This year is the year of the ox. On Chinese New Year’s Day there will sometimes be dragon dances. Dragon dances are when three to four people put on a dragon outfit/costume and they dance. Usually, the people just sway to the music under the costume. This is done to ward off evil spirits because, lets face it, dragons are scary. People in the north of China typically eat dumplings on Chinese New Year eve, in the south, people eat a variety of different dishes and on Chinese New Year day you must eat rice cakes. But no matter where you are, you must eat fish because the fish has the same enunciation as the word for rich in Chinese. For Chinese New Year you must start by eating dumplings and end by eating rice balls. Chinese New year lasts for 15 days. It is traditional that on Chinese New Year’s Eve you must make it back to your hometown to eat dinner and celebrate with your family. No matter how far away you are from home you are expected to come home because Chinese New Year should be spent with family. It is also traditional that grown-ups give children red packets. Red packets contain money inside and they are given because the red symbolizes good luck and is thought to be able to ward off evil spirits. In 2020 when the Chinese Government stopped travel in and out of Wuhan and several other cities in the Hubei province, there was an uproar from the people who wouldn’t be able to return home for Chinese New Year. The only people who managed to make it home were the people who left before January 23rd. To even fathom the thought of spending Chinese New Year alone is unthinkable. But they Chinese government made the right call because if they allowed everyone to return to their families then COVID-19 would have spread much more easily and the number of cases would have increased tenfold.