Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is sometimes called the "Lunar New Year" by English speakers. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year's Eve is known as chú xī. It literally means "Year-pass Eve".

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.


There are three ways to name a Chinese year:

By an animal (like a mscot). 2008 is known as the Year of the Rat.
2009 is the Year of the Ox.
2010 is the Year of the Tiger
There are 12 animal names; so by this system, year names are repeated every 12 years. More.

By its Formal Name (Stem-Branch).
2010 is the year of Geng Yin .

2009 is the Year of Ji Chou.

In the 'Stem-Branch' system, the years are counted in 60-year Cycles, so that the Name of the Year is repeated every 60 years.
2010 is the11-th year in the current 60-year Cycle.
2009 is the 10-th year in the current 60-year Cycle.

A "Cycle" is analogous to a "century" in the International Calendar system which is 100 years long.

2010 is Year 4707 in the Chinese Caledar.
2009 is Year 4706 in the Chinese Calendar.


And the goods people bought in New year is call " nian huo", which includes the paper-cuts and firework, people belive that which will bring the good luck at the next year.

I take some photos and and please follow me to see what people will buy during the Chinese New Year.