28.01.2025 / Happy Lunar New Year 2025! (Year of the Green Wooden Snake)

APACCCEEC’s team would like to extend warm greetings to all Chinese friends and partners for the upcoming Year of the Green Wooden Snake, beginning on 29th January 2025!

The snake (蛇) is the sixth of the twelve animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac. It is a symbol of wisdom, harmony, grace and growth. The snake is considered a mysterious and magnetic symbol, associated with transformation, rebirth, adaptability, intelligence and ambition. A key aspect of the snake archetype is the concept of exploring the deep layers of life in order to find hidden opportunities. The snake is also the lucky symbol of people born in 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001 and 2013.

All animals in the Chinese zodiac undergo the Five Phases (Wuxing) that further define the character traits of each year: Water, Fire, Wood, Earth, and Metal. The Wood element adds its specific energy to the year of the Snake. In the Chinese zodiac, Wood symbolizes growth and stability. It is an element of creativity, flexibility, resilience, and a structured approach and maturity. Thus, the coming year combines wisdom with lasting progress and a strong foundation for a stable future.

The celebration of the Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival (春节, Chūnjié). The Spring Festival is the most significant celebration in China and has a thousand-year history – some scholars claim it originated more than 4,000 years ago. The festival is also notable for its duration and rich traditions and rituals. The Chinese New Year’s Eve is called “Chuxi”. According to tradition, there are usually a dozen dishes on the table, and tofu and fish must be among them because the pronunciation of these words is identical to the Chinese characters for ‘wealth’. Red is used in clothing and decorations to bring prosperity, and people exchange “Hongbao” (利是) – red envelopes with cash for good luck.

Other commonly practiced New Year’s traditions include the well-known dragon and lion dances, mounting calligraphies of the Fu character (福), which signifies happiness/prosperity, and setting off fireworks.

The Spring Festival brings on the world’s largest temporary migration – milions of people travel to their hometowns for the Chinese New Year festivities.

We warmly extend our Chinese New Year’s greetings to everyone with the phrase, “Xin nian hao!/新年好!”