It’s the Year of the Monkey! Chinese festivals proclaim

Ye, a first year INTO student, said celebrating the New Year in America for the first time has been different because it is traditionally a multiple-day holiday, with most Chinese workers getting a full week off work or school.

A man plays an intricate instrument at a Lunar New Year’s celebration at Huangsi Temple in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China.

The increasingly affluent Chinese are more willing to travel to other domestic places and overseas, making tourism a key sector powering economic growth.

The Year of the Goat gave way to the Year of the Monkey on Monday. Millions of Chinese began celebrating the Lunar New Year, which marks the Year of the Monkey on the Chinese zodiac. Money dispatched in this manner is called ya sui qian, meaning “lucky money”, carrying wishes of another year of well-being and happiness.

This collaboration has resulted in creating a Lunar New Year Brew: Moon Monkey Ale with Ginger, which will be unveiled at the Lunar Brew Tasting at Create Space from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12.

Monkey shaped balloons are offered for sale in Manila’s Chinatown district on the eve of Lunar New Year. People do eat long noodles in the first several days of the new year as a symbol of long life.

According to the Diversity Chair of ZPN Kristina Aiad-Toss, the objective of the event was to “teach students about the significance of Chinese New Year by exposing them to traditions and important aspects about the holiday”. Various activities, such as beating drums and striking gongs, as well as dragon and lion dances, are all part of the Spring Festival festivities. “I’m from Vietnam, but Vietnam has the same lunar year as the Chinese too”.

In Singapore, people wait to plant the first joss stick of the year at the stroke of midnight in Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho temple.

In Hanoi, New Year’s is a time to dress in traditional clothing.

These lion dancers in the East Indian city of Calcutta performed during that city’s New Year kickoff celebrations. Still, she said, the Kutztown celebration was in the spirit of the one in China.