春节(chūn jié) - Chinese New Year, the Spring Festival in Mandarin

春节 (Chūnjié) is Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival: 春 (chūn) means "spring" and 节 (jié) means "festival". It is the single biggest holiday in the Chinese calendar, built around the lunar calendar rather than 1 January, so the date shifts between late January and mid February each year.

The run up to 春节 (Chūnjié) means travelling home for 团圆饭 (tuányuánfàn), the "reunion meal", and children look forward to 红包 (hóngbāo), red envelopes of money from parents and grandparents. Streets and homes fill with the colour red, which is considered lucky, and firecrackers are set off to scare away bad luck.

Do not confuse 春节 (Chūnjié) with 圣诞节 (Shèngdànjié), "Christmas", even though both get translated loosely as "the big winter festival" by learners in a hurry. They share nothing beyond both falling roughly in the colder months.