Happy Chinese New Year!

Are you looking forward to the Chinese New Year? Here’s what it means, how it’s celebrated, and how your organisation can prepare for it.

Christmas might be big in the UK, but it pales in comparison to Chinese New Year in the East. Every year, upwards of a billion people celebrate the changing of the lunar calendar (as opposed to our Gregorian calendar).

Where Did Chinese New Year Come From?

The Chinese and other Asians celebrate the Chinese new year late in the winter, usually sometime in late January or February, according to our calendar. Called the “Spring Festival,” this fifteen-day-long celebration involves food, street celebrations and fireworks. It culminates with the Lantern Festival where the Chinese launch millions of small flame-powered lanterns into the sky.

Chinese New Year emerged more than three thousand years ago at some point in the Shang Dynasty 1600 - 1100 BC. People would take time off work in the spring and celebrate with their families, offer sacrifices to the gods, and do everything they could to bring good fortune for the coming year.

Where Do People Celebrate Chinese New Year?

In the West, we call it “Chinese” New Year, but it’s a calendar event celebrated all over the eastern world. The Koreans, Thais, Malaysians, Japanese and Vietnamese all hold massive celebrations at the same time as those in mainland China.

You can also find Chinese new year celebrations in virtually any city around the world with a large Asian diaspora. London, San Francisco and New York all play host to celebrations.

How To Celebrate Chinese New Year

For businesses, Chinese New Year is a big opportunity – easily as big as Christmas. Therefore, it’s critical that you celebrate it in the right way.

Food is right at the heart of all Chinese New Year celebrations. People traditionally eat dumplings or noodles, depending on their country of origin. You will also see other traditional foods, such as spring rolls, pork dishes, fruits and rice cakes.

Businesses that sell these products need to be at the top of their game, offering customers tools that make it easy to get in contact with them. Live online chat software from Click4Assistance, for instance, lets website visitors communicate with brands within seconds of arriving on the home-page, instead of contacting them via email or telephone.

Businesses are also heavily involved in the entertainment surrounding Chinese new year. Organisations arrange street performances, operas, parades, musical performances and dances. The costume industry contributes by providing lion and dragon costumes, both traditional symbols of the culture.

Again, these businesses need ways to chat with their audiences. With Click4Assistance’s smartCast chat windows, you can show event organisers exactly what you offer while they wait for reps. These pop out of the side of the chat screen and are ideal for showcasing promotional videos or offering discounts.

Lastly, we have gifts. In traditional Chinese New Year, these aren’t consumer items wrapped in wrapping paper, as they are in the West. Instead, they’re envelopes or red pockets containing money usually handed from middle-age people to the old and young. Stationery demand goes through the roof at this time, so businesses need video tools, from Click4Assistance, to help guide their clients on which items to buy.