1. Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival marking the end of the winter cold. Spring is welcomed along with new beginnings and a fresh start – a rebirth Chinese New Year as it follows the lunar calendar. Chinese New Year ranges from January 21 to February 20. This year it will be February 5th.
2. The Spring Festival was originally a ceremonial day to pray to gods and ancestors, and to fight off monsters and demons. Hence, fireworks are set off that night to scare off bad spirits and misfortunes. Families also burn fake paper money and printed gold bars in honor of their deceased. The belief is that the offerings will bring fortune and good luck to their ancestors in the afterlife.
3. With 1.2 billion Chinese people set to travel the country to spend time with families, the holiday creates the largest migration of people during the same period. You can imagine the traffic conditions!
4. Traditions are an important part of the New Year holiday. No showering, sweeping or taking out the trash on New Year day. No getting your hair cut or using any sharp objects, breaking things, or using negative language or thoughts, else you risk accidentally also washing or cutting away the good luck and prosperity for the upcoming year.  People do all their cleaning and such the days before the new year….to prepare for the upcoming good stuff!
5. Red envelops, red clothes, red doors and red lanterns are all common relics of the New Year. Red is the luckiest color meant to ward off evil and provide protection, and welcome prosperity.
6. Food, food and more food, and wine too! As with most holidays, food and merry making is a huge part of the festivities. Tons of special varieties, all with special symbolic meaning: dumplings, rice cakes, etc.
   • Tuanyuan (团圆) - a type of soup balls which means “reunion”
   • Nian gao (年糕) - a type of rice cake symbolizing success
   • Fa gao (发糕) - a type of sponge cakes or muffin dyed in festive colors symbolizing prosperity: fa is the same as in fa cai (发财), which means “to get rich.”

This 2019 Chinese New Year celebrates the year of the Pig! People born the year of the pigs have a beautiful personality and are blessed with good fortune in life.  I like the sound of that!

Happy New Year!   新年好 / 新年好 (Xīnnián hǎo)

Happiness and prosperity!  恭喜发财 / 恭喜發財 (Gōngxǐ fācái)

A steady rise to high places! Wishing great success!   步步高升 / 步步高陞 (Bùbù gāoshēng)

Gong Xi Fa Chai ! Gong Hay Fat Choy !

恭禧发财  恭禧发财

… Stay tuned for the next Segment of HT Localization Presents Language Translations for Real Life Series, where we’ll continue … 

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This article was written by Rachanee Thevenet, Co-Founder of HT Localization.  Rachanee is an Asian-American expat living in Spain with her family.  She loves all things international including food, art, literature, culture, languages and people.  She has years of professional product marketing expertise and global expansion experience.

HT Localization, LLC. is a worldwide translation & localization agency providing a full range of professional language translation services, including social media localization, marketing translations, website translations, software localization, eLearning materials, documentation translations, etc.  With locations in the US, Spain, France, Zambia & Thailand, and coverage across all languages and most industries, HT Localization is well positioned to provide around the globe services for all translation needs.  

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