# Lunar New Year? or Chinese? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 18, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lunar-new-year-or-chinese/392704 "2007-02-18T13:55:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lunar-new-year-or-chinese/392704/1 "2007-02-18T13:55:55Z")
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.) So, why the change? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lunar-new-year-or-chinese/392704/2 "2007-02-18T14:14:34Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lunar-new-year-or-chinese/392704/3 "2007-02-18T14:14:58Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lunar-new-year-or-chinese/392704/4 "2007-02-18T14:49:08Z")
[QUOTE=China Guy] 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. [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lunar-new-year-or-chinese/392704/5 "2007-02-18T20:45:26Z")
[QUOTE=China Guy] 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. [/QUOTE] 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 _ex_clusive of certain other non-Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Jaochai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2acd7d/32.png) [@Jaochai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaochai)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lunar-new-year-or-chinese/392704/6 "2007-02-18T21:17:48Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lunar-new-year-or-chinese/392704/7 "2007-02-19T01:20:58Z")
[QUOTE=Keeve] 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 _ex_clusive of certain other non-Chinese. [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lunar-new-year-or-chinese/392704/8 "2007-02-19T01:35:36Z")
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.