Happy Chinese New Year, or should we say Happy Year of the Monkey, which is the Chinese zodiac sign for 2016.
In less than a week, offices and factories all across China will begin to shut down for 2 to 3 weeks to celebrate Chinese New Years. It’s China’s biggest holiday, and a mass migration takes place, with workers in densely populated cities traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles back to their hometowns to be with family. The holiday’s effect can be felt across the globe here in the USA too, as manufacturing of all kinds of goods ceases production for nearly a month.
So, what is Chinese New Years? Well, after consulting Wikipedia and various other web resources, we can tell you that it’s the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar (see above). And 2016 will be, in the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, the year 4713, and will begin on February 8, 2016.
Chinese months are calculated by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day (lunar-ly speaking). The New Year’s celebration starts on the first day of the first month of the new year, which is February 8th this year, and continues for 15 days until the moon is at its brightest.