The ancient Greeks celebrated the New Year in the new moon after June 21. The ancient Romans celebrated their New Year on March 1. At the reign of Julius Cesar the Roman New Year was changed to January 1. The ancient Britons celebrated their New Year in December 25 but after the Roman conquest, they changed it to January 1. In the Middle Ages, the Christian world began their year on March 25, but when the world adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, the New Year was changed to January 1.

Oriental civilizations using the lunar calendar celebrated their New Year on the second new moon after the winter solstice. This year the Chinese New Year falls on February 18. Nations who had been influenced by the Chinese culture would celebrate this New Year. Among the Vietnamese, this is called the Tet. This is a tradition older than the Western New Year. The Western civilization date their historical events starting from the year Christ was born whenever that was The Chinese date their historical events relative to the reigns of their emperors.

Oriental history has not been clear when the Chinese started reckoning their New Year. Although there had been three major religions in ancient China , it is only the belief in Lord Buddha that had influenced the Chinese calendar. The three personalities, who are prominent in the Chinese religion lived in the fifth or fourth century before Christ. Lao Tse who founded Taoism and Kung Tse or Confucius who founded Confucianism had no influence in the Chinese calendar. Gautama Siddiharta 563 – 403 BC, whose religion. Buddhism, was introduced into China and that was when the Chinese zodiac was introduced.

Legend says that when Siddihartha or Buddha the enlightened one called the animals to attend to him, only the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram or goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig responded. To honor them, the Buddhists placed those animals in the Chinese zodiac. The coming Chinese New Year ushers the Year of the Pig. Old Chinese, particularly the , who practice shamanism burn the pictures of the household gods and replace them with new pictures of the same gods during the Chinese New Year. They and the Buddhists offer food offering, burn incense or joss sticks in the altar of their gods

On that day, every Chinese who follow the old tradition explode firecrackers on the first seconds of the Chinese New Year to scare off evil spirits, which bring bad luck. The louder and more prolonged the explosion, the better. On their New Years Day, lion and dragon dances are performed by athletic clubs. Gifts like the tikoy, which said to enhance the strength of relationships is given.

While the Chinese New Year is celebrated in China , Taiwan , Vietnam , Singapore and in places where the Chinese are numerous, the event is celebrated here only in cities, like Manila and Cebu City . The Chinese in the provinces are so assimilated that perhaps they have forgotten the origins. We have some prominent Chinese here and some of influential Filipinos of Chinese extractions but they are afraid to be identified as traditional Chinese. They have even dropped their Chinese names. The Chinese civilization is one among the oldest if not the oldest in the world. Once, they have considered themselves as celestials and because of their high culture, they have the right to do so. They had abandoned their rich cultural heritage