Lunar New Year (celebrated in China and some other Asian countries) begins at the first new moon of the first lunar month. Filofaxes recognize the Lunar New Year -- but stealthily. First, as shown here, moon phases are represented on diary pages by empty (full moon) or blacked-in (new moon) circles. This photo shows a day-per-page format, but the weekly diaries have the moon phases, too.
On the International Information page (the one that lists national currencies, time zones, and holidays), you can see which countries celebrate the holiday by looking for the new moon dates (in 2007, February 17 and 18). Looks like Hong Kong (HK), China (CN), Taiwan (ROC), and South Korea (ROK).
Brazil (BR) also lists February 17-21 as national holidays, but I suspect that has more to do with Carnaval than Lunar New Year.
My favorite part of Lunar New Year as it's celebrated in China? Many people get days or even weeks off from work in order to travel back to their old hometowns and celebrate the new year with relatives.
Is Malaysia also listed? Cuz we also celebrate Chinese New Year in Malaysia, altho we only get two days off (and just one in some states).
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese community is the second largest in Malaysia, which is why we get to have two days off for our new year.
Hi Chet! Thanks for asking. I forgot to check for Malaysia, and that's because I only looked on Feb 17 and 18. There are actually 4 days listed for Lunar New Year, and here's the breakdown by country:
ReplyDeleteFeb 17: Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea
Feb 18: Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and China
Feb 19 & 20: same as above, plus Malaysia
A good friend of mine is Chinese Indonesian, and I understand there's a Chinese community in Indonesia, too, but Indonesia is not listed. But as we saw with the Halloween example earlier, Filofax is pretty accurate when it comes to listing official holidays, but not what people REALLY celebrate.