A new Lunar New Year means a new way to celebrate! Due to the ongoing pandemic, Monterey Park’s traditional Lunar New Year street festival has been canceled. However, the City of Monterey Park Recreation and Community Services Department wants to help families get the New Year started off right with some fun and rewarding activities.
While many countries celebrate the New Year on January 1st, the first day of the Gregorian Calendar, some countries in Asia follow a different calendar called the Lunar Calendar. Many of these Asian countries celebrate Lunar New Year, which may also be known as Spring Festival, Chinese New Year, and many others.
The Lunar Calendar is measured by lunations, which is the amount of time it takes for the moon to go around the Earth. A lunation is complete when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, which takes 29 ½ days. This results in months being 29-30 days and a Lunar Calendar year of about 354 days. The Lunar New Year begins on the first new moon of the year, so Lunar New Year falls in January or February each year.
