The celebration of Lunar New Year dates back to the Zhou dynasty in ancient China. It’s the most significant annual festival for Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans around the world.
In China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, festivities start on New Year’s Eve and end on the fifteenth day of the first month.
In Korea, “Seollal” or Lunar New Year, lasts three days.
Each lunar year is represented by a different zodiac sign out of twelve animals.
2019 is the Year of the Pig.
Before the New Year, families spring-clean their homes – symbolically sweeping off the past year’s bad luck and make room for good fortune and homes are decorated with lucky words written on red paper.
The most popular Chinese character is Fu – meaning happiness.
It’s an especially exciting time for children who receive money wrapped in red envelopes gifted by parents and older relatives.
Hong Kong-born Beona Chen has lived in Brisbane for ten years.
While she now calls Australia home she says it’s in her D-N-A to celebrate Lunar New Year.
Listen to the feature in Bangla in the audio player above.
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