How much do you know about Chinese New Year?
On February 12, China celebrates one of its most important holidays, Chinese New Year. Do you know where the holiday comes from and how it's celebrated? Go ahead and test your knowledge!
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Chinese New Year is also called Lunar New Year, because the date it is celebrated is determined by the phases of the moon. Technically, the holiday begins during the second new moon after the winter solstice. What is a new moon?
A full moon
A crescent moon
A phase of the moon where the moon is invisible from Earth
A half moon
Pete Marovich/For The Washington Post
According to one legend, Chinese New Year celebrations began as a way to scare away a beast named Nian, who visits cities and villages each spring and attacks people. Nian is afraid of a few things, though. What are they?
Loud noises and the color red
Water and bees
The color yellow and the music of flutes
The taste of dumplings and the smell of fried chicken
An Rong Xu/ Getty Images
The Chinese zodiac system assigns each year to one of 12 animals. Friday marks the beginning of the Year of the Ox. What animal represented 2020?
Dragon
Snake
Rat
Hippo
Ng Han Guan/AP
Which of these foods is not traditionally eaten during Chinese New Year?
Fish
Cheese
Dumplings
Sticky rice
Katherine Frey/ The Washington Post
As part of Chinese New Year, red envelopes are traditionally given by elders to young people. What is inside of the envelopes?
Money
Grains of rice
Photos
Poems
Shakh Aivazov/AP
Chinese New Year parades typically include a lion dance. What happens in a lion dance?
A circus ringmaster herds lions down a street.
Dancers perform kung fu movements inside a lion costume.
A man and a woman waltz while wearing lionlike headgear.
A community performs a large line dance to remind people not to lie during the new year.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Lunar New Year is celebrated across China. About how many people live in China, the world's most populous country?
600 million
1 billion
1.4 billion
2.1 billion
Phillippe Lopez/ Agence France-Presse/ Getty Images
Fireworks and new year celebrations go together like peanut butter and jelly. But fireworks during the Lunar New Year come from a tradition of lighting bamboo stalks on fire. What were the bamboo sticks used for?
To light the path for ancestors to greet them.
For celebration and decoration.
The "boom" they produced when heated was thought to ward off evil spirits.
To let celebrators know where the Lunar New Year festivities are happening.
Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/ Reuters
A dish containing long noodles is traditional during Chinese New Year. What does it represent?
A long life
A money in your future
Happiness
A good year
Roslan Rahman/ Agence France-Presse/ Getty Images
Doing which one of these actions is considered good luck during Chinese New Year?
Cutting your hair
Washing your hair
Wearing red
Buying shoes
Your score: 0 / 10
- 1
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says to avoid Johnson & Johnson vaccine if possible - 2 Donors gave a House candidate more than $8 million. A single firm took nearly half of it.
- 3 Senate to move forward on $1.9 trillion virus relief bill; Schumer says ‘we’ll have the votes’
- 4 Perspective The time is right to cancel Dr. Seuss’s racist books
- 5 A mom reported her 6-year-old missing. She’d actually run him over and thrown him in a river, police said.