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Festivities for Lunar New Year are set to kick off over the weekend, but which countries will be celebrating?
Lunar New Year marks the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar, which, aligns with the movements of both the longitude of the sun and the various phases of the moon.
As celebrations are set to start from Sunday (January 22), let’s take at where Lunar New Year is celebrated across the globe…
Which countries celebrate Lunar New Year?
Lunar New Year is mainly celebrated in countries Asia with those who observe the festivities bidding farewell to the past year. Some of the countries include:
- China
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Taiwan
- Vietnam
- Malaysia
- Philippines
- Indonesia
- Brunei
Others have later new year celebrations
While many countries will mark the new year at the end of this week, others will reign it in later in the spring.
Several countries, including Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Nepal, will have their celebrations in mid-April.
Elsewhere other new year celebrations known will commence in February across the country of Bhutan as well as the region of China, Tibet as well as Mongolia.
Some countries also have their own names for their New Year festivities
Lunar New Year celebrations seem to have alternative names depending on the different countries they are celebrated in.
In both China and Singapore, locals refer to the celebrations as Chūnjié, which in English translates to mean spring festival.
Across Vietnam, festivities are known as Tết Nguyên Đán which over time has been shortened to just Tết.
In Korea new year is known as Seollal and locals in Mongolia know it as Tsagaan Sar. It has also become known as Imlek in Indonesia.
Elsewhere, some of the later new year celebrations also have their own names, Thingyan (Myanmar) Choul Chnam Thmey and Moha Sangkranta (Cambodia), Pi Mai (Laos) and Songkran (Thailand).
