CHUNYAN
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About
- “Chunyun” festival in China is considered the largest annual human migration across the world to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
- The Chinese Lunar New Year is the most widely celebrated festival in China.
- It is also known as the Spring Festival.
- It is based on the lunar calendar.
- Chinese use the lunar calendar for festivals and other traditional days, However, they follow the Gregorian calendar for business purposes.
- Each lunar year is represented by one of the 12 zodiac animals — rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig—2023 is the Year of the Rabbit.
- The Lunar New Year is celebrated around a month after the first day of the Gregorian calendar.
- Nearly 20% of the world’s population celebrates the Lunar New Year, including people in Vietnam, Thailand, the Phillippines, Japan, and China.
- The Festival also marks the beginning of spring and the end of winter.
- During the holiday, people return to their hometowns and families for a joint celebration, leading to one of the largest movements of humans in the world— “chunyun”, simply translated as “spring transportation”.
- Generally, the travel season begins 15 days before the New Year and celebrations last for around 40 days.
- It ends after 15 days of country-wide festivities that include fireworks and dancing dragons.
- During this time, airports and railway stations are usually overcrowded and there is heavy traffic on roads.