This year February 6, 2011, was the start of the 4709 Chinese New Year, with Birmingham's Chinese quarter awash with a sea of red and gold as the local population of all nationalities celebrated the Birmingham Chinese New Year, which this year is the Chinese Year of the Rabbit.  The Birmingham Chinese New Year activities commenced at noon in the Arcadian Centre with an afternoon of free entertainment which included Dragon dances, acrobatic performances, Kung Fu demonstrations and Chinese New Year songs and these were just some of the Chinese cultural entertainment on offer. This was followed by a firework display with the entertainment finishing at around 4.30pm.

For those who found it impossible to access the Arcadian Centre, a large screen was also erected for the viewing of the celebrations outside the Birmingham Hippodrome, whilst thousands of people also packed the local streets to savour the aroma, plus the sights and sounds of the Birmingham Chinese New Year celebrations; the smells being circulated from steamed pork dumplings and noodles which were being sold on the nearby stalls. The crowds enjoying the afternoon's entertainment were estimated to be at around 25,000, which was even larger than those who attended the 2010 celebrations.

For many, this was just the start of their Birmingham Chinese New Year Celebrations, with many of them later attending a Chinese New Year Celebrations held at one of the local Chinese Restaurants in Birmingham and without doubt the remainder of the United Kingdom. On offer was what can only be described as a feast of food with the majority of restaurants a offering four course meal and upwards. Most restaurants also offered an evening of entertainment including an appearance of a Chinese Dragon, which tended to do the restaurant rounds, Karaoke, plus other forms of amusements and activities. Due to its popularity and in order to keep their regular customers happy, most restaurants offered the New Year celebration feast for a two or three day period.

It is true to say that the food presented is usually of a very high standard, mouth watering in presentation and certainly more than enough in quantity for the large majority of diners with the greedy ones amongst them able to pick their partners plates clean if they so desired.

For many the Birmingham Chinese New Year Celebrations are just another excuse for a few drinks and food a plenty. For restaurants, such as Wing Wah restaurant, Birmingham it is commercially probably the best few days of the year, be it it's there's or the normal one as we Brit's know it. 

The Chinese New Year is identified by an animal zodiac, which reappear every twelfth year and these animals, along with Chinese New Year dates are listed below:-

You now have the dates so there should be no excuses for overlooking the next twelve years of Chinese New Year Celebrations.

It is interesting to note that this yeas official date was 3 February, however, the Birmingham Chinese New Year Celebrations were on the 6 February and to date no detail has been unearthed explaining the reason for this. If there is anyone reading this article that can provide an answer to this question perhaps you could email us at Activ Birmingham on info@activbirmingham.com. We are waiting.

As experienced in the UK, the Chinese New Year does not commence on a specific date, with its commencement varying from late January to mid February.

In China the Chinese New Year is the most important of all their national holidays and is the longest in the Chinese calendar year and is celebrated in countries with a sizeable Chinese population, such as mainland China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines and the huge number of worldwide Chinatowns.

Within China the celebrations vary widely due to regional traditions and customs. People will spend their money on presents, decorations, material, clothing and food as part of their celebrations. It is tradition for families to totally sweep and clean their properties in the hope of ridding them of any possibility off misfortune hoping to make way for inward good luck. Doors and windows are decorated with red coloured paper with popular themes of happiness, wealth and a prolonged existence. On New Year's Eve, families will sit down to a food feast which will include meat from pigs, chickens and ducks, plus various sweet decoratives and the evening will come to an end with firecrackers. The next morning the children will greet their parents and families by wishing them a healthy and happy New Year. In exchange the children will receive money in red paper envelopes.

The tradition of the Chinese New Year is to put things to rights, forget all grudges and sincerely wish health and happiness to everyone. Perhaps, in this respect, there are lessons here to be learned by the rest of the world's population.

Legend has it that at the very beginning the Chinese New Year started with a fight against a mythical beast called Nian. The beast would return on the first day of the New Year to eat livestock, crops and even villagers, with children identified as the beast favourite.

For protection, the villagers left food outside their doors at the commencement of each New Year, as it was believed that once the food had been consumed by the beast, it would not attack any more people that year. Villagers then saw that the beast was frightened away by a small child wearing red and so assumed that it was the colour red that it was afraid of. From then on when the new year arrived, they would hang lanterns  and red spring scrolls on their doors and windows, and legend has it that The Nian never came back to trouble the villagers again. Hence, in the Chinese New Year Celebrations, the use of the colour red.

Well the aforementioned may be of use to you in future quiz shows so absorb it and be ready to answer questions associated with the CNY.