Imlek - Names in Chinese

Names in Chinese

Traditionally, the festivities surrounding Chinese New Year was known as the Nian festival (simplified Chinese: 年节; traditional Chinese: 年節; pinyin: Nián Jié), which may be understood to as "festival of the year", or "new year festival". A derivative term, "Guo Nian" (simplified Chinese: 过年; traditional Chinese: 過年), "to pass the year", is still commonly used to refer to the act of celebrating the arrival of the new year.

New Year's Day itself was traditionally called Yuandan (Chinese: 元旦; pinyin: Yuándàn), literally "the first sunrise", but in 1913 the recently established Republic of China government appropriated that name to refer instead to New Year's Day in the newly adopted Gregorian Calendar, with Chinese New Year instead being called "Spring Festival" (simplified Chinese: 春节; traditional Chinese: 春節; pinyin: Chūnjié), which remains the official name for the New Year's Day public holiday in both mainland China and Taiwan. Prior to 1913, "Spring Festival" instead referred to lichun, (February 4 or 5), the first solar term in a Chinese calendar year, which marked the end of winter and start of spring.

Chinese New Year's Eve, a day where Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, is known as Chúxī (除夕), literally "evening of the passing".

An alternative name for Chinese New Year in China is "New Year in the Agricultural Calendar" (simplified Chinese: 农历新年; traditional Chinese: 農曆新年; pinyin: Nónglì Xīnnían), the "Agricultural Calendar" being one of the more common Chinese language names for the Chinese calendar in China.

An alternative name for Chinese New Year's Day means literally "first day of the year" (Chinese: 年初一; pinyin: Nián Chūyī). The New Year's Day public holiday in Hong Kong and Macau is named in Chinese using this term, as literally "first day of the year in the Agricultural Calendar" (simplified Chinese: 农历年初一; traditional Chinese: 農曆年初一; pinyin: Nónglì Nián Chūyī).