Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays, and comparable to Christmas in the West. It is also known in Chinese as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year. The festival begins on the first day of the first lunar month.

The lunar calendar has a sixty year cycle. In the Chinese horoscope, the five basic elements of Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth, which make up all matter, are combined with the twelve animal signs of Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Lamb, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig to form the sixty year cycle. A person's Chinese horoscope is based on which lunar year in this sixty year cycle one was born. In the Chinese horoscope, 2007 is the year of the pig.

Most of the pictures featured here were taken at a market in Hong Kong just before Chinese New Year in February 2007. Many of them show items for sale and people buying presents and decorations.

Picture Gallery
Decorations for a Chinese New Year inside a shopping mall