By Manal Abdel Fattah
The Chinese affairs expert and former media advisor at the Egyptian Embassy in Beijing, Ahmed Salam, confirmed that the Spring Festival in China is a Chinese civilizational and cultural product that will enhance peaceful coexistence and support the global civilization initiative.
Salam said that the Spring Festival, which is also known as the “Family Reunion Festival,” where families and friends gather, and all Chinese lands and many spots in all countries of the world are decorated with red colors, lanterns, and lighting, is one of the most important Chinese traditional celebrations and enters into the core of ancient Chinese culture and civilization. .
He pointed out the diversity of forms and ways in which the Chinese celebrate the Spring Festival, as the color red is spread everywhere, in home decorations, banners, lanterns, and clothes. It is like fireworks that scare away monsters, according to what the Chinese believe.
Millions of Chinese also travel thousands of miles to return to their families in all provinces to celebrate with relatives and family, and shortly before the beginning of the year they are keen to clean their homes to get rid of any bad luck, according to Salam.
He continued that with the increase in China’s soft and hard power and the tremendous achievements it has achieved, especially with regard to economic and social development, the United Nations General Assembly decided to include the Chinese Spring Festival or Lunar New Year on the list of official holidays in the United Nations.
On December 22, 2023, the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival was officially included as a floating United Nations holiday in the schedule of conferences and meetings of the United Nations starting in 2024.
The United Nations General Assembly, in a resolution adopted without a vote, recognized the importance of the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated in many member states of the United Nations, and called on the bodies of the global organization at its headquarters and other workplaces to avoid holding meetings in the Lunar New Year.
The United Nations considers holidays that are celebrated globally to be floating holidays, and refrains from setting dates for meetings on such occasions.
Many countries include Spring Festival as a national holiday, and about a fifth of humanity celebrates this holiday in different ways.
The Egyptian expert considered that the UN resolution is a step that embodies global appreciation for the heritage of peoples and an appreciation for Chinese civilization and culture, which has become an integral part of the global cultural fabric, and reflects the profound impact of Chinese traditions on the world level.
He pointed out that the year 2024 is the first year in which the Chinese and the United Nations share the celebration of the Spring Festival, which contains various Chinese cultural concepts such as peace, harmony, harmony, and others, and it also carries common universal values for all human beings, including family meetings and gatherings, and human harmony with nature.
Salam praised China’s efforts to transform the Spring Festival into a holiday at the United Nations, seeking to take practical measures to achieve the Global Civilization Initiative and enhance respect for the diversity of global civilizations.
In this context, he pointed out that the “Global Civilization Initiative,” which was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in March 2023 and aims to restore the concepts of peaceful coexistence, prevent wars, and reduce current global tension, is an initiative for peace, a call against war, and a call for coexistence and cooperation among all nations, recalling the long history of tolerance. Among ancient civilizations.
It also calls for respect for the diversity of civilizations in the world, a commitment to equality and common benefit, dialogue and tolerance, overcoming differences and conflicts between civilizations, paying attention to the inheritance and creativity of civilizations, and fully devoting the modern value to the history and civilization of all countries and their cultures, according to Salam.
He added that the initiative also calls for strengthening international communication and cooperation in the humanitarian and cultural field, discussing building a cooperation network for dialogue among world civilizations, enriching the elements of communication, expanding cooperation channels, and enhancing acquaintance and rapprochement among the peoples of the world, in a way that advances the development and progress of human civilization.
The Egyptian expert on Chinese affairs stressed the need for everyone to respect human cultural and civilizational diversity, and for the international community to work hard to revive and celebrate it in all parts of the world, and for the world, including Egypt, to participate with the Chinese in their celebration of the Spring Festival at the official and popular levels, which reflects a pattern A unique combination of civilizational coexistence and human exchange between the Chinese people and the peoples of the entire world, which has already begun in many different countries of the world.
