By Charly SHELTON

For the western world, which uses a Gregorian calendar, the New Year was celebrated a month ago. But for those in the east who use a lunar calendar, the New Year is fast approaching. Lunar New Year is on Feb. 16, and it will usher in the Year of the Dog. And, by Chinese calendar reckoning, it will be the year 4716. With such a large Asian population in Southern California, Lunar New Year is a huge celebration that extends across town and into local theme parks and even takes over whole towns for street festivals. It is a time for parades, paper lanterns, Chinese dragons and red envelopes. With so many different celebrations, there is no shortage of places to embrace the New Year. But for those who only know Feb. 16, 2018 as another Friday, let’s look at the history of Lunar New Year.

The most famous lunar calendar, the Chinese calendar, has its earliest evidence on oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty, in the late 20th century B.C.E. (Its invention was credited to the legendary Emperor Huangdi, who reportedly developed the calendar in 2637 B.C.E. between inventing writing and building wooden houses, carts, boats and creating the bow and arrow.) The calendar was built upon further with greater clarification in texts of the Early Zhou Dynasty (1045 – 256 B.C.E.), like the Spring and Autumn Annals. The calendar follows the lunar and solar patterns, as a lunisolar calendar, with the number of months determined by the sun and the beginning and end of months by the moon. The year begins with the second new moon after the winter solstice, which falls between late January and mid February. This two-week celebration – the Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year or Spring Festival depending on whom you ask – is one of the biggest holidays on the lunar calendar and it comes with superstitions, tidings of good luck and gift giving.

Traditionally, in fear of bringing a year of bad luck, one should avoid taking medicine, eating porridge, washing laundry or hair, using sharp objects like knives or scissors, sweeping the floors, crying children, being pick-pocketed, lending money, owning an empty jar, wearing damaged clothes, killing things or cutting yourself, wearing white or black and giving gifts of scissors, pears or clocks. Women should not leave the house at all. This only lasts for the first day or two of the festival, so after that feel free to leave your house and get pick-pocketed to your heart’s content; it won’t affect the rest of your year. To promote good luck, eat buckwheat noodles and slurp them all the way down without breaking them by chewing, thereby promoting a long, unbroken life. Eat round foods and beef to become rich and rotund. Write down your wish for the New Year and tie it to a tree or lantern. Give money as gifts in red envelopes to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits. Crack fireworks to scare away the Nian, a giant beast that comes to eat villagers at the end of the year. Get dressed up in your finest new clothes to go to the family reunion dinner. And at the end of the two-week celebration for the New Year, it’s time to celebrate again with the Festival of Lanterns, in which paper lanterns are lit and carried around town while people tell stories and riddles.

In LA, there are dozens of celebrations ranging from dining specials at restaurants to taking over the entire downtown area of Alhambra, and everything in between. Shopping centers like The Grove, The Americana at Brand, Beverly Center and Westfield Santa Anita have mid-size festivals and special events throughout the celebration, hotels like The London and The Beverly Hilton will have special packages to celebrate in style, and entire towns will be over taken by festivals; in Monterey Park the street festival will be over five blocks long; in San Gabriel, the focus is on food ranging from food trucks to gourmet booths; and, of course, in Chinatown where the whole town gets into the massive celebration.

Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood will get in the spirit, each with their own unique takes on the Lunar New Year Festival, featuring characters from “Mulan,” “Kung Fu Panda” and more. Full coverage of the theme park celebrations will be in CV Weekly in the issue on Feb. 15, just in time for the Lunar New Year the day after.

See you then!

  Charly Shelton