Known as the Spring Festival the Chinese New Year is a holiday determined by the lunisolar Chinese calendar- meaning the date changes from year to year. Festivities start the day before the New Year (Feb 8th this year) and continue until the Lantern Festival – celebrated this year on February 27th.

For Vancouver this holiday is a pretty big deal! The Chinese community is as old as the city itself – and is also the third largest in North America. So you can bet there will be some celebrations going on.

Each year is characterized by an animal. This year is the Monkey – the 9th animal in the cycle.

 

Take a minute to check out the Chinese related material in our collections! Click on any of the images pictured here or search through the Asian Rare Books collection – filled with all sorts of interesting things census forms, literature, even wall map of China published in late Ming dynasty (between late 16th century and early 17 century) or check out the Yip Sang Collection filled with letters (translated in English and Chinese) of Yip Sang who settled in Vancouver in 1881. All these letters are currently stored at the Vancouver City Archives.

 Xīnnián hǎo (New Year Goodness) to you all!