A Chinese Spring Festival celebration, including traditional dancers and an opportunity to sample Chinese food, takes place at Goldsmiths College tonight.
Pic: Goldsmiths Confucius Institute
Chinese New Year, known as the Spring Festival in modern China, is celebrated at the turn of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. It is considered the most important holiday for Chinese people across the world. Celebrations traditionally run from the evening preceding the first day, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first calendar month.
The dancers, from Goldsmiths’ Confucius Institute, will perform in traditional Chinese costumes.
Pic: Sophia Su
The Lunar festival is centuries old and traditionally, was a time to honour deities as well as ancestors. Within China, customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Lunar New Year vary widely, but most tradition dictates that families gather for an annual reunion dinner.
It is also traditional for families to decorate houses and windows with red colour paper decorations based on popular themes of “good fortune” or “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity”. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes.
Pic: Sophia Su
Lunar New Year is also celebrated in other Asian countries, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and so on.
The event will be held in The Great Hall, in the Richard Hoggart Building at Goldsmiths, from 5.30 to 8pm.
