Today (February 18), Google’s home page has a cute graphic announcing that this is the Lunar New Year. And a few minutes ago, I heard a similar remark on the news.
My question: Why are people referring to it as Lunar New Year, rather than Chinese New Year?
Several cultures use a lunar calendar, and while several of them mark today’s New Moon as the beginning of the year, not all of them do. (For example, Judaism and Islam use a lunar calendar, and neither marks this as the new year.)
Just getting more exact and using more general terminology.
Chinese New Year = Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year does not = Chinese New Year
For example, the Tibetans, Thai, Korean, Mongolians, Cambodians et al all celebrate Lunar New Year. It’s also pretty likely a direct influence from the Chinese in historic times.
Vietnam, for one. Particularly in the Year of the Cat, where Vietnamese people will tell you at great length about Chinese people’s supposed inability to tell the difference between a rabbit and a cat. The big day can differ, IIRC.
I guess it’s because whilst there are cultures that use lunar calendars that don’t recognise a lunar new year, those that do are not all Chinese.
That’s still a Chinese thing here in Thailand rather than a Thai thing. Thai New Year is April 13, 14 and 15, three days, without any particular one being THE New Year. It’s just that there’s so many Chinese here, it gets a lot of attention, especially as the ethnic Chinese dominate in wealth and politics.
I honestly don’t understand what you are trying to say.
I suspect that your point is that Chinese, Tibetans, Korean, Mongolians, and Cambodians all celebrate the same Lunar New Year. My point is that Jews and Moslems (and according to Siam Sam, Thai) also celebrate Lunar New Year, but at a different time.
It seems to me that the media folk are trying to be more inclusive of certain non-Chinese, and at the same time they got more exclusive of certain other non-Chinese.
It’s because while today is Chinese New Year, it’s also New Year for people in other countries, like Cambodia, Vietnam, etc, as well as for people who are culturally linked to those countries around the world.
It’s the same as if they tried to call January 1st American New Year. Well, it is, but it’s also New Year for other countries.
Thai New Year is not a lunar new year, because it’s the exact same days every year: April 13, 14 and 15. Never varies. People tend to stretch out the celebrations to a few days either side, but those are always the official days.
Despite the fact that Buddhist holidays here do follow the lunar calendar, THE Lunar New Year is not just that important to the ethnic Thais. It’s the Chinese who throw themselves into it. The focus of activities is our China Town, which is the Yaowarat area of Bangkok. But Chinese-style temples everywhere will be packed with Chinese-Thais. Upcountry, a lot will be going on in tourist spots and places of large ethnic-Chinese concentration, but back when I lived in a small town in the North, celebrations were almost non-existent, limited to some low-key commemmorations by Chinese merchants at home.
Oh, and the Thais don’t have a Year of the This or Year of the That. That’s strictly Chinese.
Since the ethnic Chinese are the wealthiest Thai citizens, all the 5-star department stores and shopping centers splash out on big Chinese New Year sales. And of course, these department stores and shopping centers are all owned by ethnic Chinese, too, making THEM even wealthier. Chinese New Year in Thailand, as a result, tends to be a total shopping extravaganza. The wealthiest and most powerful people in Thailand are the ethnic Chinese. My wife’s family is not wealthy, but they’re definitely better off than many Thais. Her family has more money than I do, and that tends to be a rarity among farangs (Westerners) here who marry local lasses.