For Lunar New Year 2023 we hopped (like a rabbit) over to the 25th annual New Year Firecracker ceremony and cultural festival at Sara D. Roosevelt Park at Grand Street
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From Wikipedia:
Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. In Chinese, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival (traditional Chinese: ζ₯η―; simplified Chinese: ζ₯θ; pinyin: ChΕ«njiΓ©) as the spring season in the lunisolar calendar traditionally starts with lichun, the first of the twenty-four solar terms which the festival celebrates around the time of the Chinese New Year. Marking the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season, observances traditionally take place from New Year’s Eve, the evening preceding the first day of the year to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February.
Chinese New Year is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture, and has strongly influenced Lunar New Year celebrations of its 56 ethnic groups, such as the Losar of Tibet (Tibetan: ΰ½£ΰ½ΌΰΌΰ½ΰ½¦ΰ½’ΰΌ), and of China’s neighbours, including the Korean New Year (Korean: μ€λ ; RR: Seollal), and the TαΊΏt of Vietnam, as well as in Okinawa. It is also celebrated worldwide in regions and countries that houses significant Overseas Chinese or Sinophone populations, especially in Southeast Asia. These include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is also prominent beyond Asia, especially in Australia, Canada, Mauritius, New Zealand, Peru, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as various European countries.
The Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs. The festival was traditionally a time to honor deities as well as ancestors. Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the New Year vary widely, and the evening preceding the New Year’s Day is frequently regarded as an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also a tradition for every family to thoroughly clean their house, in order to sweep away any ill fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Another custom is the decoration of windows and doors with red paper-cuts and couplets. Popular themes among these paper-cuts and couplets include good fortune or happiness, wealth, and longevity. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red envelopes.
The Chinese calendar defines the lunar month containing the winter solstice as the eleventh month, meaning that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (rarely the third if an intercalary month intervenes). In more than 96 percent of the years, Chinese New Year’s Day is the closest date to a new moon to lichun (Chinese: η«ζ₯; “start of spring”) on 4 or 5 February, and the first new moon after dahan (Chinese: 倧ε―; “major cold”). In the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese New Year begins at the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February.
Gregorian Date Animal Day of the week
2022 1 Feb Tiger Tuesday
2023 22 Jan Rabbit Sunday
2024 10 Feb Dragon Saturday
2025 29 Jan Snake Wednesday
2026 17 Feb Horse Tuesday
2027 6 Feb Goat Saturday
2028 26 Jan Monkey Wednesday
2029 13 Feb Rooster Tuesday
2030 3 Feb Dog Sunday
2031 23 Jan Pig Thursday
2032 11 Feb Rat Wednesday
2033 31 Jan Ox Monday
Mythology:
According to legend, Chinese New Year started with a mythical beast called the Nian (a beast that lives under the sea or in the mountains) during the annual Spring Festival. The Nian would eat villagers, especially children in the middle of the night. One year, all the villagers decided to hide from the beast. An older man appeared before the villagers went into hiding and said that he would stay the night and would get revenge on the Nian. The old man put red papers up and set off firecrackers. The day after, the villagers came back to their town and saw that nothing had been destroyed. They assumed that the old man was a deity who came to save them. The villagers then understood that Yanhuang had discovered that the Nian was afraid of the color red and loud noises. Then the tradition grew when New Year was approaching, and the villagers would wear red clothes, hang red lanterns, and red spring scrolls on windows and doors and used firecrackers and drums to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk.
Read more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year