Lunar New Year is the first new moon of a lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar year, whose months are moon cycles. The event is celebrated by numerous cultures in various ways at diverse dates.
The more well-known celebrations include New Year's Day (or week) in the Chinese calendar and Tibetan calendar of East Asia; the Buddhist and Hindu calendars of Southeast and South Asia; the Islamic calendar and the Jewish calendar that originated in the Middle East; and the Nisga'a calendar from Canada. The determination of the first month of a new lunar year varies by culture.
The Lunar New Year is an event celebrated by millions of people across the world on the first new moon of their calendar. Although often referred to as "Lunar New Year" in English, this is a misnomer, as it refers to both celebrations based on a lunar calendar as well as a lunisolar calendar. The Islamic New Year (also called the Hijri New Year or 1 Muharram) determined by the Islamic calendar, a purely lunar calendar that ignores the solar cycle that is used to reset lunisolar calendars. Lunar New Year celebrations in East and Central Asia, such as Chinese New Year, are based on a lunisolar calendar. Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (rarely the third if an intercalary month intervenes). Some Lunar New Year celebrations, such as in Korea and Vietnam, generally fall on the same day as the Chinese celebration in late January or February, due to being based on the Chinese calendar or a variation of it. However celebration customs and holiday durations may differ. Lunisolar New Year celebrations of other cultures such as Burmese, Cambodian, Lao, Sri Lankan, and Thai people are based on the Buddhist calendar and occur in mid-April.
In the United States of America, Lunar New Year is strongly associated with Chinese Americans and "Chinese New Year" is commonly used as a translation by people of non-Chinese backgrounds. Chinese New Year is the official name of the celebration and holiday in some countries such as Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia.
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The Mongolian Lunar New Year, commonly known as Tsagaan Sar (Цагаан сар, Cagán sar / , t͡shaɢaːŋ sar or literally White Moon), is the first day of the year according to the Mongolian lunisolar calendar. The festival of the Lunar New Year is celebrated by the Mongols and some Turkic peoples. The holiday has shamanistic influences. The White Moon festival is celebrated on the first through third days of the first lunar month. Tibet's Losar occurs on the same day as the Mongolian White Moon.
Rosh HaShanah (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, Rōʾš hašŠānā, literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (יוֹם תְּרוּעָה, Yōm Tərūʿā, lit. "day of shouting/blasting"). It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days (יָמִים נוֹרָאִים, Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm, "Days of Awe"), as specified by Leviticus 23:23–25, that occur in the late summer/early autumn of the Northern Hemisphere. Rosh Hashanah begins a ten-day period of penitence culminating in Yom Kippur, as well as beginning the cycle of autumnal religious festivals running through Sukkot and ending in Shemini Atzeret.
Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. In Chinese, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival () as the spring season in the lunisolar calendar traditionally starts with lichun, the first of the twenty-four solar terms which the festival celebrates around the time of the Chinese New Year. Marking the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season, observances traditionally take place from Chinese New Year's Eve, the evening preceding the first day of the year, to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year.