77 WABC Celebrates Lunar New Year 2024 Tuesday, Feb. 20

On Tuesday, February 20th, 2024 WABC will be celebrating the Lunar New Year, also known as Spring Festival on 77WABC with a day of programming and live performances from WABC’s Studio77 located in Midtown, Manhattan.

Lunar New Year, with its long association to the moon, is celebrated by almost two billion people across the world, mainly in countries in East Asia. Lunar New Year lasts for 16 days until the start of the Lantern Festival.  The New Year celebrates Asian culture and traditions and wishes all good fortune and prosperity.

The Lunar New Year calendar is comprised of 12 animals, each animal occurring every 12 years. This year is The Year of the Dragon and it is said in Chinese culture, the dragon represents good luck, strength, health and also the male element Yang. The dragon is unique because it is the only mythical creature of all the animals in the Chinese zodiac.

Additionally, some traditions include, wearing red, visiting relatives, eating 7 traditional foods, fish, dumplings, spring rolls, longevity noodles, good fortune fruit, tangyuan (sweet rice noodles), niangao (glutinous rice cakes) and firecracker and fireworks.