Chinese Quarter<\/a>.<\/p>\n What do I need to know about the Chinese New Year?<\/b> ![\"Chinese](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SH.CNY_.10.2.2019.097-min-scaled-1.jpg\")
Credit: Birmingham Hippodrome <\/p>\n
Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival<\/strong>, is not only a major holiday in China, but in the likes of South Korea, Vietnam, and many other East Asian countries, too. Traditionally, it is a time to honour deities and ancestors, feast, and visit family<\/strong>, while celebrations focus on fireworks, food, lanterns and the colour red.<\/p>\nCelebrations then last for 16 days, this year ending on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, and concluding with a Lantern Festival<\/strong> to mark the first full moon of the new year. The night sky is filled with lanterns to symbolise the return of light and spring. Iconic red envelopes<\/strong>, filled with money, are also handed out to children during this period.<\/p>\n What is the Year of the Fire Horse?<\/b> ![\"Chinese](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Lunar-NY.-22.1.2023.199-scaled-1.jpg\")
Credit: Birmingham Hippodrome <\/p>\n
While the Year of the Horse comes around every 12 years, the zodiac combination of Fire Horse<\/strong>, linked with rapid transformation, comes around only every 60 years. Many predict a year of chaos or cultural change<\/strong>. In 1966, the Vietnam War escalated, England won the World Cup, and The Beatles performed the first major stadium rock concert in New York.<\/p>\n What can I expect at Birmingham\u2019s Chinese New Year festival?<\/b> <\/p>\n
No specific details have yet been given, but it promises to \u201cwow audiences with both traditional and modern music, dance and theatre performances<\/strong>.\u201d Previous years have the traditional waking of the lion dances, a packed programme of local Chinese talent, before a huge fireworks finale<\/strong>, as well as crafts market, food stalls, and funfairs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Birmingham Hippodrome Save In Chinese culture, 12 animals bestow their personality traits onto each zodiac year. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-695775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115894486853264570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Chinese](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Hippodrome.23.1.2020.012-min-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg\")