Dear colleagues, friends and members of WASWAC,

The most important festival of China - Chinese New Year is coming soon, we would like to take this opportunity to introduce you the year of 2017 in Chinese calendar.

Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, has more than 4,000 years of history. It is the grandest and the most important annual event for Chinese people.

2017 is the Year of the rooster according to Chinese zodiac. As the tenth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac, the Years of the Rooster include 1909, 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017,...

Direct, talented and capable, roosters are deep thinkers. They are best described as eccentric with strange flights of fancy. Externally, they are radian creatures who enjoy the limelight. They are astute, organised, detailed and meticulous and, will call a spade. Ambitions run high in them and they will work to make it happen. Nothing can match the rooster's resilience in life and it's ability to spring back into action each time. But they can become cocky, bossy and blunt.

The date of the Chinese New Year is determined by the Chinese calendar, a lunisolar calendar. The same calendar is used in countries that have adopted the Confucian and Buddhism tradition and in many cultures influenced by the Chinese. Chinese New Year starts on the first day of the New Year containing a new moon (some sources even include New Year's Eve) and ends on the Lantern Festival fourteen days later. This occurs around the time of the full moon as each lunation is about 29.53 days in duration. In the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, on a date between January 21 and February 21. The Chinese New Year in 2017 will be on January 25.

Before the Spring Festival, every Chinese family will have a thorough house cleanup and go for festival items shopping. The spring couplets, Fu Character, and animal paper cut are pasted for decoration. Also, new clothes must be bought, especially for children. At the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, people from north will eat dumplings, which southern people are used to have Niangao (glutinous rice cake). Red Envelopes are given to kids and elders to share the blessing.

The secretariat of WASWAC wish all of our members a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year!