Festival and traditions: Chinese New Year (lunar) India and Indian

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. The Chinese New Year is celebrated for about fifteen days. It is the time in the year when the whole nation feels united. The Chinese New Year is determined by the Chinese New Year calendar and it is generally called the Lunar New Year. 2010 is the Year of the Tiger in China. The year of tiger is known in China by its formal name of Geng Yin.

The Chinese Lunar Year Festival in 2010 would start from 14th of February. The working people in China can take leave of weeks to join the company of their family members and friends on the Chinese New Year eve. Most of the Chinese people still follow all the customs very fervently despite the changing times and increasing mobility and some changes in the celebrations of Chinese New Year Festival.

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in China. The Chinese New Year festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th. Chinese New Year Eve is known as chú xī that means "Year-pass Eve".

The origin of Chinese New Year eve has its root in centuries old traditions and several myths make it significant. Chinese New Year eve has been reflecting behavior and belief of Chinese people since ancient times.

Chinese lunar calendar has a time cycle of twelve years reflecting Chinese Zodiac signs Dog, Pig, Rooster, Dragon, Ox, Sheep, Horse, Rabbit, Snake, Monkey, Rat and Tiger. Chinese Zodiac signs are different from western and Indian Zodiac signs. However, all systems have twelve Zodiac signs.

Chinese years are named after these twelve Zodiac signs.This year is marked as Tiger, the last one according to Chinese year cycle.

This cycle can be compared with Indian lunar calendar which has thirty years cycle with different names of a year (Samvatsar).

Chinese years are often numbered from the reign of Huangdi outside China despite no continuously numbered years in traditional Chinese calendar. However, scholars are not unanimous in calculating Chinese Year. There are at least three different opinions. The Chinese Year for 2010 is calculated as 4647, 4707 and 4708.

India has similar tradition of Lunar New years. However, there are several New Years eve in India unlike only one in China. Chinese New year starts this year on the first day of the full moon fortnight in the month of Falguna or Fagun according to Indian lunar calendar.

View Indian New year

Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the New Year celebrations of its geographic neighbors except India. It is celebrated in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese and cultures having extensive interactions with Chinese such as Mongolians (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết), Koreans (Seollal), Tibetans and Bhutanese (Losar) and the Japanese (Oshogatsu) till nineteenth century.

Chinese New Year is also celebrated in countries with significant Han Chinese populations, such as Singapore, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Kolkata city in West Bengal has significant Chinese population in India. They also celebrate Chinese New year eve in their traditional way.

Though Chinese New Year is not an official holiday In Australia, Canada and the United States, large numbers of ethnic Chinese hold large celebrations. Australia, Canada and the US Postal Service issue postal stamps themed Chinese New Year.

Regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese New Year vary widely within China. People buy presents, decoration materials, food, garments, and Jewelry  just like the westerns do in Christmas and English New Year. Traditionally people thoroughly clean their houses to sweep away any ill-fortune. They decorate windows and doors with couplets and paper-cuts of red color. These decorations have popular themes of wealth, happiness and longevity. They do it in hopes for incoming good-luck. It is very similar to Indians cleaning their houses and offices in Diwali to welcome fortune and wealth. It is worth noted that one of the Indian New year, Vir Samvat,  starts from the next day of Diwali.

Supper is a feast with family and friends on the Eve of Chinese New Year. Food includes sweet delicacies. This ceremony occurs in Chinese families on the last night of the old year (as 31^st December in western cultures). Usually they end the night with firecrackers. (Firecrackers are an essential part of Diwali in India)

Children greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy New Year, the next morning. Married and elderly people gift them money in red paper envelopes. Red is considered very auspicious in China.

The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile forgetting all grudges and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone. This can be compared with Kshamapana (Divine forgiveness) in Jain Paryushana and Kolakuli of Bengali people in India on Vijaya Dashami (Dushera).