Chinese New Year also celebrated in Namibia

The Chinese New Year was celebrated on Tuesday (5 February). Chinese Namibians and expatriates also joined the celebrations and will continue with festivities into the weekend when it all ends with a colourful lantern festival. The New Year announced the beginning of the year of the pig. Celebrations include colourful street parades across the globe.

The Chinese New Year is celebrated in China and in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia. In Namibia where Chinese nationals and Chinese companies work also de-escalated ope-rations for the duration of the New Years celebrations, also known as the Spring Festival.
These projects include major road building projects between Henties Bay and Swakopmund, behind the dune belt on the MR44 between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, the container terminal on reclaimed land in the port of Walvis Bay and the liquid bulk fuel terminal north of Walvis Bay near Bird Rock.
With a population of nearly 1,4 billion, and many Chinese living abroad, the Chinese New Year is celebrated by an estimated 20 % of the world. The annual Spring Festival is the single biggest annual migration when Chinese people undertake travels to their ancestral homes. On mainland China people undertake several billion car rides, bus rides, train rides and flights to reach their traditional homes where they honour ancestors and pray to gods for prosperity.
We took a quick search online and uncovered these interesting facts on the subject of the annual Chinese New Year.

1. The Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival. Although it is still very cold in China, the holiday marks the end of the coldest days of winter.
2. There’s no set date for Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year ranges from January 21 to February 20. This year it occurred on February 5th.
3. The festivities also represents the most fireworks set off at the same time worldwide. It even surpasses fireworks during the Gregorian or Western New Year. There are some 500 cities in China though that prohibit the use of fireworks in the interest of air pollution. Fireworks form part of the celebrations beyond New Year too. Often several weeks.
4. On that night too families burn fake paper money and printed gold bars. It is to honour family members who departed this life. Offerings bring good fortunes to the departed souls.
5. It is the longest Chinese holiday. It can be as long as forty days.
6. Chinese New Year also boosts the Chinese economy. People spend twice as much during this period as for examples Americans would spend during Thanksgiving.
7. Showstopper too. The large majority of stores are closed during this period and several Asian stock exchanges also close down for a number of days.
8. No showering, sweeping or throwing out garbage allowed. Showering isn’t allowed New Year’s Day. Sweeping and throwing out garbage isn’t allowed before the 5th. This is to make sure you don’t wash away the good luck!
   However, there is a day before the Spring Festival dedicated to cleaning. This day is to sweep the bad luck away and make room for the good.
9. Children receive envelopes of “lucky” money.