Scottish Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is a very important festival celebrated at the beginning of the Chinese Calendar, and as the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the celebration is also often referred to as the Lunar New Year. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and for other countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, including Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Thailand along with Chinatowns world wide.

Across China their are many varying regional customs and traditions regarding the celebration of Chinese new year. Often the evening preceding Chinese New Year's Day is an occasion for families to gather for a large family dinner with many traditional dishes. It is also common for each family to thoroughly clean their house in order to sweep away an ill-fortune, making way for incoming good luck, before they begin decorating the windows and doors with red colour paper cuttings all themed around good fortune, happiness and wealth. Other popular activities include lighting fire works and giving red envelopes filled with money, the money given should be of even numbers as odd numbers are associated with money given at funerals.

People typically wear new clothes from head to toe to symbolise a new beginning in the new year. Wearing new clothes also symbolises having more than enough things to use and wear in the new year.

The new clothing mainly features the colour red because it was once believed that red could scare away evil spirits and bad fortune.

The Chinese Scottish tartan was originally created to signify the special relationship that exists between Scotland and China and between the Scots and the Chinese community in Scotland. The inspiration for this tartan came from Madam Guo Guifang, Chinese Consul General, who once spoke of the unique Scottish tartan as one of the major tourist attractions for the Chinese and suggested the idea of creating a specific tartan for the Chinese people. The tartan incorporates the colours of the Scottish Saltire together with the red and yellow of the Chinese flag. These are interwoven with green bands to symbolise the great co-operation between Scottish and Chinese botanists in the Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh - home to the world's largest collection of Chinese plants outside China itself. The yellow crosses the red in five places which signifies the five stars of the Chinese Flag, the biggest and brightest being represented by the yellow cross in the middle of the red.

We wish you good health, wealth and luck for the forthcoming year of the Goat! Happy Scottish Chinese New Year!