Chinese New Year is the largest annual human migration on earth and the most visible East Asian festival in Britain. A good many of the objects associated with it turn up in British homes with no explanation attached.
Here is what they actually mean.
When it falls
It follows the lunar calendar, so it moves. The date lands somewhere between 21 January and 20 February, on the second new moon after the winter solstice.
Celebrations run for around fifteen days, ending with the Lantern Festival at the first full moon of the year. The preparation matters as much as the day itself, which is where most of the objects come in.
The laughing Buddha
Not a New Year figure specifically, but he is Chinese and he turns up constantly at this time of year, so the connection is worth explaining.
He is Budai, a tenth century Chan monk associated with contentment and generosity, later regarded as an incarnation of Maitreya, the Buddha of the future. He is not the historical Buddha, which is the most common confusion in the whole category.
What ties him to New Year is the association with fortune arriving. The convention is to place him facing into the home from near the entrance, so he greets what comes in. Our articles on who the laughing Buddha actually was and where a laughing Buddha should face cover both.
The set of three happy Buddhas at £45.99 is the piece most often given, and tradition holds a gifted figure carries more fortune than a bought one.
The dragon
The most misread object in the group by Western eyes.
The Chinese dragon is auspicious rather than threatening, which is close to the opposite of the European dragon. It is associated with power, prosperity, water and imperial authority, and dragon dances at New Year are about summoning good fortune rather than defeating anything.
The ball or pearl a dragon holds or chases is usually read as wisdom, or as prosperity and the pursuit of it. Our 27cm feng shui dragon with ball at £43.99 carries that motif.
Placement conventions vary between schools, though dragons are commonly placed to the east and generally not in bedrooms or bathrooms.
Coins and ingots
The boat shaped gold ingot is a yuanbao, a form of currency used for centuries. Strings of coins with square holes are old Chinese cash coins, and the square hole in a round coin represents earth within heaven.
Both are straightforwardly about wealth and neither pretends otherwise, which has its own honesty.
Red, and why it is everywhere
Red envelopes, red banners, red clothing. The association is with good fortune and with warding off misfortune, and there is a traditional story about a beast called Nian who feared the colour red and loud noise, which is also where the firecrackers come from.
Whether the story came before or after the custom is a question for folklorists. The association is genuine and very old either way.
The three wise monkeys, which are not Chinese
Worth clearing up because they often appear alongside Chinese New Year objects in shops.
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil is Japanese, most famously carved at the Toshogu shrine in Nikko in the seventeenth century. The Japanese names of the three monkeys contain a pun on the word for monkey, which is part of why the image took this form.
Our set of three see no evil figures at £34.99 sits in our brass range, and it is a Japanese maxim rather than a Chinese one.
What belongs in a British home
If you have no connection to the festival, borrowing the full apparatus is uncomfortable and obvious. What is entirely reasonable is owning an object because you like it and knowing what it means.
A laughing Buddha near the door is a folk figure of good fortune rather than a devotional image, which is precisely why he sits so easily in a home with no Buddhist or Chinese connection. Our guide to what the brass feng shui figures are and where they belong covers the range.
Questions people ask
When is Chinese New Year?
It moves with the lunar calendar and falls between 21 January and 20 February, on the second new moon after the winter solstice. Celebrations run around fifteen days.
Is the laughing Buddha a Chinese New Year figure?
Not specifically, though he is Chinese and appears constantly at that time of year through the association with fortune arriving. He is Budai, a tenth century monk, not the historical Buddha.
What does the Chinese dragon mean?
Power, prosperity and imperial authority. It is auspicious rather than threatening, which is the opposite of the European dragon. The ball it holds is usually read as wisdom or prosperity.
Why is red used everywhere?
It is associated with good fortune and with warding off misfortune. A traditional story tells of a beast called Nian who feared red and loud noise, which also accounts for firecrackers.
Are the three wise monkeys Chinese?
No, Japanese. The most famous depiction is the seventeenth century carving at the Toshogu shrine in Nikko.
