Year of the Rooster - Celebration of Chinese New Year

Over a quarter of the world population celebrates Chinese New Year. The Year of the Rooster will begin on January 28, 2017 and end on February 15, 2018. According to the Chinese horoscope, the Year of the Rooster will be a very busy year. However, the hard work will be rewarded with professional success. To find out more about the Chinese predictions for the coming year and to learn about other traditions associated with the New Year Festival, plan to attend the Chinese New Year celebration at SWPS Unviersity.

Nianhua is a form of colored woodblock print used for decoration during the Chinese New Year Holiday. At the beginning of every Lunar New Year, people hang a new picture on their door, replacing the one from the previous year, to say good bye to the past and to welcome the future. The significance of the New Year posters goes beyond the role of a festive decoration. They are a reflection of Chinese history, society, the way of life, beliefs and customs.

The lecture will delivered by Professor Krzysztof Gawlikowski, founder and Director of the Center for East Asian Civilization at SWPS University, and a leading expert on China in Poland.

The Spring Festival is the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar. In the Lunar Calendar, Spring denotes the end of the old and the beginning of the new year. Therefore it is also called Chinese New Year. The holiday usually begins at the end of January and lasts until mid-February. Traditionally, it used to start on the eve of the New Year's Day (i.e. the 30th day of the 12th month of the Lunar Calendar) and lasted until the 15th day of the 1st month (i.e. until the Lantern Festival).

During the holiday, people made offerings to the gods, asked for the favor of the gods, prayed for abundant harvest, and remembered their ancestors. Although today, the New Year’s public holiday in China lasts only three days, some of the New Year's traditions are still celebrated by every Chinese family.

The Chinese New Year’s Quiz will cover the topics of Chinese customs and traditions, associated with the holiday. It will be available at various levels of difficulty.

Chinese horoscope is different from the Western one, which is based on the Greek tradition. Although there are also 12 signs in the Chinese Zodiac, each sign corresponds to one full year, not one month as it is in the Western horoscope. Therefore, the Chinese Zodiac creates a 12-year, not a 12-month cycle. Instead of the star constellations, twelve animals denote the signs of the Chinese Zodiac. It is believed that the character of a person born in the year of a given animal is influenced by the traits of that creature.

The animals of the Chinese Zodiac change every 12 years and each sign is associated with one of the five Chinese elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). Therefore, the complete cycle of the Chinese Zodiac takes 60 years to complete.

The Year of the Rooster begins on January 28, 2017 and will end on February 18, 2018. It is the year of hard honest work, which will be the key to success in the coming months.

During the event, students will present the Chinese Horoscope for 2017, for all zodiac signs, including: the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. They will also talk about the characteristics of each Zodiac sign.

During the celebration, everyone will have an opportunity to try their hand at Chinese calligraphy and will learn to write their name and the name of their Zodiac sign. The workshop will be conducted by Assistant Professor Sylvia Ting-Yu Lee, Ph.D., Chinese (Mandarin) teacher at SWPS University.

Mahjong (麻将 majiang) is a game for up to four players that originated in China during the Qing dynasty. The game is played with a set of 144 tiles (reminiscent of domino tiles), which are divided into four main groups (similar to suits in the Western card games) and several sub-groups, such as Winds, Dragons, Flowers, and Seasons.

Xiangqi (象棋), also called Chinese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in China.

Weiqi (围棋), also known as “go”, is an abstract strategy board game for two players. The object of the game is to surround more territory than the opponent. The game is also popular in Korea and Japan and in recent years it has been gaining in popularity around the world, including Poland. The game, which was invented in ancient China over 2,500 years ago, is a combination of art, learning and sport.

Spring rolls (春卷) – a traditional Chinese New Year dish, made with meat and/or vegetables, rolled in a thin rice wrap and deep fried. The name of the dish is derived from the name of the holiday - Spring Festival. Eating spring rolls is a way to welcome the arrival of the new season.

Jiaozi dumplings (饺子) – a kind of Chinese dumpling, filled with ground meat and steamed, is one of the major foods eaten during the Chinese New Year. Preparing and eating jiaozi plays an important role in the celebration.