Jan. 31 (UPI) —<\/span> Monday in China was the final day of the Year of the Ox — and Tuesday opened the Year of the Tiger.<\/p>\n The lunar new year, which is most prominently associated with Chinese culture, began on Feb. 1 — and begins a celebration in many Asian countries that can last for about two weeks.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea are a few that also observe the occasion — and roughly 1.5 billion people worldwide will observe it and participate in festivities.<\/p>\n Countries that observe the event often make it a public holiday. In China, it coincides with the Lantern Festival on Feb. 15.\n<\/p>\n In China, the start of the lunar new year is considered to be the biggest holiday of the year and marks the beginning of the 15-day Spring Festival. The final day is often called Chinese Valentine’s Day. Historically, it was the only day when young girls would meet boys while admiring the lanterns.<\/p>\n The lunar year is based on the 12 phases of the moon, which each last around 29 days and comprise about 354 days — meaning it falls on a different date each year. In 2023, the lunar new year will begin Jan. 22.\n<\/p>\n The last Year of the Tiger was 2010 — although, technically, 2022 is the Year of the Water Tiger, which means it could be less aggressive. The five elements — earth, fire, metal, water and wood — rotate alongside the 12 animal signs. Tigers were born in 2010, 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962, 1950, and so on.\n<\/p>\n Much like spring cleaning, there’s typically a big clean just before the start of the lunar new year — symbolizing a clean, fresh start.<\/p>\n After dealing with COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, there will be some in-person celebrations worldwide in 2022. In the United States, both Chicago and San Francisco are planning parades in February.<\/p>\n Fireworks are also a typical part of celebrations. Historically, the loud noises are thought to scare off evil spirits.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dancers perform the Chinese traditional Lion Dance on Monday during lunar new year celebrations at a temple in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia. The Year of the Tiger, or Spring Festival in China, begins on Tuesday. Photo by Made Nagi\/EPA-EFE Jan. 31 (UPI) — Monday in China was the final day of the Year of the Ox […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":774379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-774378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Asian](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Asian-nations-welcome-lunar-new-year-or-Year-of-the-Tiger.jpg\" "\\"Asian")
\n<\/div>\nDancers perform the Chinese traditional Lion Dance on Monday during lunar new year celebrations at a temple in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia. The Year of the Tiger, or Spring Festival in China, begins on Tuesday. Photo by Made Nagi\/EPA-EFE<\/p>\n