Chinese New Year Versus Lunar New Year

January 22, 2023

[Short greetings] Before anything else, Happy Lunar New Year to all my readers. I wish you all the happiness and prosperity in life. 🐉🎉🎆

Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year: Are they really the same?

[Backstory] There was this conversation I had with a Taiwanese guy. We talked about New Year and how I celebrate my New Year. I even bragged to him that I celebrate two New Years every year. And he was curious about the other New Year so I talked about it.

I unconsciously assumed that he could relate to what I was discussing about because he is Taiwanese. I was wrong though ’cause Chinese New Year is not Chinese New Year in Taiwan (obviously). And I apologized ’cause I lacked the knowledge and my ignorance probably offended him (though he said he wasn’t). 😔

Well, looking at it on the bright side, this is the reason why I love talking to people. I learn from them. It’s the knowledge I am always after in a conversation.

Anyway, the misconception led me to read more about it. I didn’t find many but there’s this one article which was written by Cindy that I found where she clearly explained about their differences.

So, are they really the same? Simple answer, yes, if you’re Chinese. No, if you’re not. Chinese New Year is just one of the many festivals observed and celebrated under the hypernym Lunar New Year, which is the beginning of a lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar year. Although Lunar New Year is widely celebrated in Asia, the term Chinese New Year is specific to Chinese culture. For other Asian countries that celebrate Lunar New Year, some traditions are shared or even unique depending on each country’s cultural identity. And because of their distinctions, they are called differently. For instance, Vietnamese people call theirs Vietnamese New Year, Korean people call theirs Korean New Year, and so on.

My thoughts, I have two.

One, for the purpose of not offending anybody anymore, it is safe to greet everybody, most especially in casual conversation, Happy Lunar New Year.

Two, practice makes perfect but practicing the right way is indeed better. So from now on, I call this New Year, Lunar New Year or Spring Festival.

Attribution:

► Lunar New Year banner by angelp