Make cheap international calls to China to wish your friends and family Good fortune and prosperity in the year of Rat.
China and over a sixth of the worlds' population will celebrate Chinese New Year on 7th February 2008. The festival is also celebrated by Koreans, Mongolians, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, Chinese populations in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia Philippines, Thailand and other countries.
Each year in the Chinese calendar is represented by one of the twelve animals of the zodiac; Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig, Rat, Ox, Tiger and Rabbit.
In February 2008 the Year of the Pig ends and the year of the Rat begins.
The Chinese New Year is the most important Chinese holiday, it is also known as the Spring Festival and is a time for families to reunite, feast together and wish each other good fortune, peace and prosperity. It is a tradition of celebrating and cultivating positive relationships with people, families, nature and the higher beings thought responsible for bringing the light each year.
Before the celebrations houses are spring cleaned and prepared for a fresh start in the New Year - debts repaid, hair cut and new clothes bought in the last few days of the last moon and fireworks displays on New Years' Eve are believed to ward off evil spirits.
On New Year's Day people put on their new clothes and visit friends and family, giving gifts of rice flour cakes and kumquats aswell as small red packets containing money, the perfect time to make those cheap calls and wish your family well.
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The celebration ends with the Lantern Festival on 15th day of the New Year, where paper lanterns in the shape of butterflies, dragons, birds, dragonflies and other animals light up the streets and are often carried by children.
Dragon and lion dances are performed in the streets to scare away evil spirits, under coloured banners wishing fortune and prosperity, towns and villages will be decorated with lanterns and floral displays while shops hang red money packets, fruit and vegetables in the hope of good fortune, which the dancers collect and take on their journey through the streets. Brightly lit floats accompany the dragon and lion dances, parades and other festivities.
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