Today, Monday, February 16, is the eve of the Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival. It is China’s most important traditional festival, its most recent addition to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, added only in December 2024. With this addition, China now has 44 cultural elements or practices recognized by UNESCO, the highest number in the world.
This recognition by UNESCO highlights the festival’s universal values and cultural importance. According to UNESCO, the Spring Festival involves “various social practices, including prayers for good fortune and family reunions. It is a time-honored tradition that promotes family values, social cohesion, and peace, while providing a sense of cultural identity.”
The history of Chinese New Year spans over 3,500 years, originating in ancient agrarian rituals and evolving through dynasties into the rich cultural celebration we know today.
Its roots can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), when people held sacrificial ceremonies to honor gods and ancestors at the beginning and end of the year, following the agricultural cycle.
The term “Nian” (year) first appeared during the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC), a period that also gave rise to one of the festival’s most enduring legends. A mythical beast named Nian would emerge on New Year’s Eve to terrorize villagers, devouring livestock and people. But people discovered that Nian was afraid of loud noises, bright lights, and the color red. To protect themselves, they would hang red decorations, light firecrackers (originally by crackling bamboo), and stay up all night, a tradition that continues today. The Chinese phrase for celebrating the New Year, Guo Nian, literally means “to pass over” or “survive the Nian.”
For centuries, the date of the new year varied between different kingdoms and dynasties. But this was standardized during the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). Around 104 BC, Emperor Wu of Han established the first day of the month of the lunar calendar as the official start of the new year, a date that has been followed ever since.
By the time of the Wei and Jin Dynasties (220-420 AD), the festival started to become popular with the common people with new customs added like family reunion dinner, and thoroughly cleaning the house to sweep away bad luck.
The Tang, Song, and Qing dynasties were considered the “golden age” for the Spring Festival’s development, with many customs that we recognize today become widespread.
The Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) started to make it a public holiday so people can visit relatives and friends and the tradition of giving “new year’s money” in red envelopes to children also began during this time. The Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) began the use of fireworks, replacing the earlier practice of burning bamboo. The Chinese invention of gunpowder led to the creation of fireworks during this period. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), the festival became more entertainment-focused. Public spectacles like the dragon and lion dances, folk performances, and elaborate lantern shows became highlights of the celebration.
The 20th century brought significant changes to the festival’s name and official status. In 1912, the newly formed Republic of China briefly attempted to abolish the lunar calendar in favor of the Gregorian calendar. This was unpopular, leading to a compromise. So in 1914, the government officially designated the lunar new year as the “Spring Festival” to distinguish it from the Gregorian New Year, January 1st, which is now referred to as “New Year’s Day.” In 1949, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the name Spring Festival was reaffirmed, and it was listed as a nationwide public holiday.
Celebrating Chinese New Year in the Philippines has been embraced by Filipinos and uniquely adapted even by those without Chinese ancestry. This is because the Chinese have been a part of the Philippine social fabric for over a thousand years, long before the arrival of Spanish colonizers. This long history has led to the creation of a unique Filipino-Chinese culture (“Tsinoy” culture), which is a seamless blend of both worlds and a vital part of the Philippines’ multicultural identity.
The common narrative begins in Binondo, Manila, established in 1594 as a settlement for Chinese immigrants and recognized as the world’s oldest Chinatown. However, according to Federico Magdalena of the Mindanao State University, the first Chinatown was actually in Jolo, Sulu back in the 13th century, even before it was Islamized. It was the Chinese trade that stimulated the Sulu sultanate and it was the Chinese who acted as “cultural brokers,” according to Aurora Roxas-Lim of the University of the Philippines Asian Center, and “brought in the complexity of their civilization to the simpler local societies like Sitangkai in Tawi-Tawi.”
Roxas-Lim stressed that the network of transport and warehousing paved the way for the entry of sllk, manufactured goods, lacquered boxes, sandalwood, and other exquisite Chinese goods to different parts of the country. This ushered in significant by-products like Chinese cuisine and the knowledge of herbal medicine that later became part of Philippine life. “The Chinese business networks, in fact, helped hold the community together and brought dynamism in an otherwise stagnant and stale social framework,” she noted.
But recent research and archeological findings reveal that Mindanao has an even longer history with the Chinese dating back to the Song Dynasty. According to Greg Hontiveros, an independent researcher on historical studies who is from Butuan City, the earliest recorded trade mission to the Chinese Empire from Mindanao was the Butuan missions of 1003-1011 AD, which preceded the Sulu missions of 1417-1424.
In his series of articles published on MindaNews in September 2023, Hontiveros noted that “some 90 percent of the Oriental ceramics recovered in Butuan and neighboring places were Song pieces, and throughout the rest of the country, most ceramic items were of the (much later) Ming period.”
Hontiveros wrote that in October 1003, the Butuan king, Ch’i-ling, sent two emissaries to the imperial court. He even shared an interesting story that was set around the Chinese New Year during the Song Dynasty. “By February 1004, the emperor summoned the Butuan visitors to attend the New Year festival where they witnessed the display of lanterns and partook of the feast. The emperor gifted them with strings of cash,” he wrote. This mission led to several others that eventually established direct trade between China and Butuan.
Based on this story, Mindanao had been connected with the Chinese through trade and cultural exchanges as far back as the 9th century. And our ancestors have been celebrating Chinese New Year with their emperors, no less. This deep historical connection is worth exploring because it might be the key to Mindanao’s peace and development.
The celebration of Chinese New Year in the Philippines has grown from a community-specific observance into the country’s third most significant festival, after Christmas and New Year. It became a special non-working holiday in 2012, reflecting its national importance. It is more than just a cultural event. It is a testament to the enduring bonds between two cultures — demonstrating how traditions can be shared, adapted, and celebrated by all, becoming a symbol of unity, harmony, and peace.
