Chinese New Year 2023 Online Celebrations
Theme:“Let There Be Peace In The World”
The Sri Sathya Sai International Organization (SSSIO) welcomes you to join us in celebrating Chap Goh Mei (Lantern Festival) . The program will be broadcast on the SSSIO YouTube channel.
- Duration: Approximately 80 Minutes.
Join Us at: Sathyasai.org/live
Chinese New Year – Its Significance
Chinese New Year is also known as Spring Festival. It is the most important festival of the year for the Chinese. It is a time reserved for families.
It is an important opportunity for families and friends to get together and celebrate the new year. Often, family members and relatives travel from all over the country to come together for the special event. Chinese people strive to make this event as special as possible, often spending hours preparing food and decorations for the events of the festival.
How do Chinese Celebrate the Spring Festival?
Each year, the date of the Chinese New Year changes due to the lunar calendar. This year it will begin on the 22nd of January 2023.
There is the reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, visits (拜年 / bài nián) to in-laws on the 2nd day and neighbors after that. Stores reopen on the 5th and society basically goes back to normal.
The celebration typically lasts fifteen days and ends with the Lantern Festival. During these fifteen days, people traditionally make offerings to their ancestors. Red envelopes containing money are given to children, and family dinners are enjoyed together. Festivities also include fireworks, lion dances, and gift-giving.
Year of The Rabbit
Chinese New Year in 2023 will mark the start of the Year of the Water Rabbit.
The Water Rabbit is characterized as having a gentle, sociable, and sometimes artistic nature. In Chinese astrology, the Water Rabbit is associated with optimism intelligence, creativity, and ambition.
According to the Chinese horoscope 2023, the Year of the Rabbit will be a good time for all the zodiac signs and an extremely lucky year for most of them!
The Lantern Festival
The Chinese New Year holiday comes to its climax with the Yuan Xiao (元宵节 / yuán xiāo jié), or Lantern Festival celebrated on February 5, 2023.
The many activities include moon gazing, lighting lanterns, riddles, lion and dragon dances, and eating glutinous rice balls.
On this day, everyone—regardless of age or gender—go out onto the streets to celebrate.
Chinese New Year Celebrations by SSSIO
This year the theme chosen for the online celebration is “Let There Be Peace In The World” .
The value of peace has been part of the logo of SSSIO.
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba said that peace in society can be attained only by each of us embracing the eternal and universal human values of truth, right conduct, peace, love, and nonviolence. Therefore, for sustainable global peace and happiness, the practice of human values in our daily lives is most important. Incidentally, the Chinese place a high value on Peace in their daily lives.
The Chinese character 平安 signifies Peace. The Chinese phrase “出入平安 “ meaning “May Peace be Everywhere” is often seen, written on red paper and pasted on the top of the door of many Chinese homes.
In this year’s online celebration, the emphasis of SSSIO is to share with the Chinese community and the world how we can manifest the value of peace at the individual, family, society, national, and world levels based on the profound teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
Six SSSIO countries viz Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand contributed to this year's online celebrations.
The event is also supported by the Nanyang Zhi Hui School and Vihara Borobudur in Medan Indonesia as well as the Sathya Sai School in Thailand.
May all be blessed with an abundance of happiness, good health, and prosperous wealth in this new year!
Jai Sai Ram.
Sri Sathya Sai International Organization.