Upcoming Holiday: Lunar New Year 🎉

Many of our students will be celebrating the Lunar New Year in the next few days. 

But what does the Lunar New Year mean for them? And what questions can we ask to spark discussion? We’ll go over all that in this post and also introduce some relevant vocabulary (bolded) you can teach.

Who Celebrates the Lunar New Year?

The Lunar New Year is a public holiday in China, North and South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Mauritius. Together, they make up more than 2 billion people or over a quarter of the world’s population! 

So you can bet your students in Korea and Taiwan will be enjoying a nice long holiday. 

• How much time do you get off for Lunar New Year? Is this the longest holiday of the year?
• What do you plan to do?

And while it’s not a national holiday in Thailand, the Lunar New Year is still celebrated all over the country, especially in cities with large ethnic Chinese populations.

• I heard that many people in Thailand also celebrate Lunar New Year. Can you tell me why?
• I read that Thailand recently made Lunar New Year a government holiday, so civil servants get the day off. Can you tell me more about government holidays? Do civil servants get more holidays than people in the private sector?
• Does your city or town have any events planned for Lunar New Year?
• Does your city or town have a large Lunar population?

Is Lunar New Year the Same as Chinese New Year?

You might know this holiday by another name: “Chinese New Year.” This is a common way to refer to the holiday, especially in countries which are home to large Chinese populations. For example, you’ll likely hear Thai students refer to this holiday as “Chinese New Year.”

The holiday started in China, so there’s nothing wrong about calling it that. However, each culture celebrates it in its own unique way, so it's safer to go with the more inclusive term, "Lunar New Year."

Some students might call it something else (e.g. “Korean New Year”), so feel free to switch to their terminology too.

• Is this holiday also called "Lunar New Year" in your language? Or does it have a different name? (Hint: The actual terms for this holiday don’t involve country names.)

When is the Lunar New Year?

This year, Lunar New Year falls on Friday, February 12th, though keep in mind the holiday officially starts the day before. 

In Korea, the holiday lasts three days starting from Lunar New Year’s Eve and in Taiwan, it lasts about a week, though festivities continue for weeks afterward.

• I heard that in Taiwan, the Lunar New Year lasts for a few weeks. Can you tell me what other festivities there are?
• I heard that in Korea, the Lunar New Year holiday lasts three days. Do you think that’s enough time for such an important holiday?

What Do People Do for the Lunar New Year?

Preparing for the New Year - Taiwan

As Lunar New Year is a big occasion in Taiwan, there’s a lot of preparation work. First, people usually do some spring cleaning. (Lunar New Year is the start of spring according to the traditional calendar.) 

They thoroughly clean their homes. Traditionally, this was done to sweep out bad fortune and make way for good fortune.

• Why do you think people do spring cleaning? 
• How often do you thoroughly clean your home?
• I heard that the New Year is also considered the start of spring in some countries. But isn’t it still winter?

Weeks before the New Year, plenty of red decorations begin to pop up everywhere.

• What do you think of all the red decorations? Does the color red symbolize anything?
• Do you decorate your home for the holiday? If not, would you like to?

• 

• 

Many decorations reference animals in the Chinese zodiac. Each lunar year corresponds to a zodiac animal. 2020 was the year of the rat, 2021 is the year of the ox, and so on.

• What’s your zodiac animal? What personality traits is it associated with?
• I hear that many couples like to have children in the year of the dragon. Can you tell me more about this?

Before the New Year, many Taiwanese people also attend year-end parties hosted by their company. These parties feature performances by employees and raffle prizes.

• Have you ever performed or won any prizes at your company year-end party?
• Do you like going to company events and spending time with your coworkers outside of work? Why? Why not?
• If you had to choose, would you rather get extra cash from your company instead of a year-end party?

During the New Year

While many people take advantage of this time to travel, most still go back to their hometowns to attend family reunions.

• If you could only travel or go back to your hometown to spend time with your family, which would you choose?
• Does your extended family get together for the New Year? Or just your immediate family?

In both Taiwan and Korea, these reunions involve a lot of feasting. Traditionally, the food is homemade, but these days more and more people order in advance.

• What kind of food do people eat during New Year’s?
• In your family, does someone make the food or do you order? If the food is homemade, who prepares it? Is it a potluck? 
• If you order out, what kinds of food can you get? Are you limited to traditional food or are there other alternatives like foreign food?

In Korea, families traditionally start the holiday with ancestral rites. They pay respects to the ancestors by bowing before them, praying for a good year, and presenting a table of offerings. After the rites, families eat the offerings and take in the blessings of the ancestors.

• Does your family make offerings to the ancestors for Lunar New Year? If so, what kind of offerings do you make?
• Do you like Korean festival food? Why? Why not?

In Taiwan, families enjoy reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve and spend the rest of the evening together, praying to ancestors and gods, playing games or watching TV until midnight.

• How does your family spend Lunar New Year’s Eve?
• I heard some people stay up until 1 am instead of midnight? Is there a reason for that?
• Does your family pray to the ancestors on New Year’s Eve? 
• What do people normally pray to ancestors and gods for?

In both countries, New Year’s greetings are exchanged along with New Year’s money. The main difference is that in Taiwan, the money is in red envelopes whereas in Korea it’s in white ones. In Korea, kids also dress in traditional clothing and greet their elders in a series of steps before getting the money.

• Can you teach me some New Year’s greetings? What do they mean?
• Will you give or receive any New Year’s money this year?
• Do adults get New Year’s money too? (Hint: In Taiwan, adults also give New Year’s money to their parents and sometimes grandparents.)
• Does the color of the envelopes matter?

Both Taiwan and Korea have special New Year’s foods. Make sure to ask your students about them! (And if you can’t wait, take a sneak preview with this Daily News article.)

Trivia: Why does the date of the Lunar New Year change every year?

The date of the Lunar New Year changes every year, generally falling between January 21st and February 21st.

This happens, because the Lunar New Year — like other traditional holidays across East Asia — follows a traditional calendar. In the screenshot below, you can see the traditional calendar date on the third line: "Gengzi Year, Month 12, Day 24."

While this calendar is often known as the "lunar calendar," it is actually "lunisolar": it takes both the sun and the moon into account.

• Do you celebrate both the January 1st New Year as well as Lunar New Year? What are the main differences?
• What are your favorite holidays? Why?
• Do you use a traditional calendar or know anyone who does? I heard it shows good and bad days for different events in your life. Can you tell me more about that?

👋 That’s it for now!

We hope this piece has given you plenty of ideas for topics to discuss with your students in the coming days. Happy tutoring and Happy Lunar New Year to all of you who celebrate it!