Celebrating the new year in Asian countries: Everything seems to be really different with them

 Happy happy new year and happy new month beautiful people 💃 even though the year is already 32 days in and January felt it didn't want to finish. I hope you had the best Christmas and new year celebration because I did alongside my house girl duties and wife material training. Anyway, as we are still in the jolly mood and the new year spirit, some of our brothers, sisters, and paternal grand cousins in different countries in Asia haven't caught up. Amazing right?

They are still wrapping their 2022 goals, while some of us have ticked off the first point in our new year resolutions like eating 10 times a day and looking for a husband because we are getting old😓😅.

   The Thai new year called Songkran is celebrated on April 13th to April 15th according to the Western calendar in Laos and some other parts of Southeast Asia. In premodern times, the date varied and was calculated according to the soli-lunar calendar. Songkran is a festival of purification and its main feature is water-splashing (all your maturity and "I can't disgrace myself like that", hanty you will drop it at the door because Songkran resembles a big, friendly, three day water fight). Everyone will carry a jar or basin of water and splashes everyone else whenever possible. They splash the water with the belief that whoever is splashed receives a blessing (so take the splash and say "I proclaim it"). Tourists usually learn to keep their cameras in plastic bags (because why will I buy a Nikon cool pix B500 digital camera for 100k, then someone will splash me water in the name of blessings, ebe bula ga-agbasasi, meaning everywhere will scatter).

   Other activities are performed during the Songkran festival like dragon racing, teams of rowers propel long narrow boats at top speed on rivers and lakes with prizes for winners. 

Chinese new year celebration is different, their new year is defined as the second new moon after the winter solstice, thus it begins sometime between late January and mid-February (we just finished 21 days of prayer and fasting and our immediate grand brother cousins haven't chanted new year officially). Let's not be confused, they join the world to celebrate new year, but they officially celebrate the new year during these periods. The same way our mothers will tell us not to carry an old hairdo into the new year or dirty laundry into the new year is the same in celebration of the new year in China. People are advised to pay all their debts before the beginning of the new year if possible. It is bad luck to begin the year with debt (pay your roommate that fifty naira, debt is debt, don't allow bad luck to follow you because of fifty naira). Children are given presents of money of in red envelopes (if you are a frequent reader of my blogs, you will know by now that the red symbolizes good fortune in China). 

if you know you know😎

In premodern times, Japan also celebrated a lunar new year (setsubun), but since the adoption of the Western calendar in 1873, the official New Year's Day has been January 1st. Some people celebrate the traditional new year as well as the modern one, others have simply transposed the old customs to the new holiday. For example, at the new year, every house is thoroughly swept and dried beans are scattered in every room of the house to chase away evil spirits (Nigerian evil spirits hit different, they will eat the beans and come back for more). Throughout Japan on New Year's Eve, the bells of Buddhist temples care rung 108 times (for the number of beads on a Buddhist rosary). Unlike the Japanese that celebrate the new year with bells, the Balinese celebrate it in silence.

Most people on the Indonesian Island of Bali follow an ancient form of Hinduism brought from India centuries ago, and their new moon (Nyepi) is based on a Hindu soli-lunar calendar. Nyepi is defined as the day after the new moon closest to the spring equinox. On Nyepi eve, there is a lively festival when people walk in procession, accompanied by Gamelam music, to the main crossroads of the village. There, they perform an exorcism to drive away evil, symbolized by a huge monster-like paper and bamboo figurines. But on Nyebi itself, everything is silent, no one comes out, no fires are lit, no food is cooked, no music is played and radios are turned off. It is forbidden to leave one's house, to make love (no new year entanglement sorry) or to talk more than necessary (my beloved parrots, you are expected to shut up). Everyone welcomes the new year in silence with reverent self-control.

I can go on and on, but I wouldn't want to give you all a long read, February just showed face, let me not do too much. I will love to know if you would want a detailed explanation of different celebrations in different Asian countries.