Long before January 1 became the standard start of the year, ancient societies in the Armenian Highlands and the Yellow River basin approached the New Year as a threshold marking renewal through agricultural and astronomical cycles.

In pre-Christian Armenia, early New Year observances were tied to the spring equinox and later to Navasard, a festival associated with fertility and seasonal transition. The lunar new year in China, often called the Spring Festival (Chun Jie), originated over 3,000 years ago during the Shang Dynasty  (c. 1600–1046 BCE) as an agrarian, or farming-based, festival.

The timing was a practical choice as survival depended on harvests, climate and communal stability.

Armenia itself once stood along the route of the ancient Silk Road – the Eurasian trade artery that connected the Chinese heartland to the Mediterranean world, where not only goods but also stories, beliefs and seasonal practices moved across civilizations.

For both ancient cultures, therefore, the New Year was the time for the family to come together, prepare abundant tables for the reunion dinner, clean homes before the New Year to sweep away bad luck and make room for good fortune, and regulate behavior to ensure a steady year ahead.

Separated by geography, history, and language, these civilizations developed a ritual grammar across continents that share many similarities today. This is most evident in the language and proverbs traditionally spoken at the beginning of the year.

"As you enter the year…"

An enduring Armenian saying captures this belief succinctly: «Ինչպես Նոր տարին դիմավորես, այնպես էլ տարին կանցնի»

As you greet the New Year, so the year will pass.

This idea that the opening moment sets the pattern for everything that follows has its near-perfect equivalent in Chinese tradition:

年头好，年尾顺。(Nian tou hao, nian wei shun)

If the beginning of the year is good, the end will be smooth.

In both cultures, the New Year is a threshold moment, so behavior and mood also matter, and even small gestures carry weight.

The ritual logic of abundance

One of the most visible expressions of this worldview appears on the New Year's table.

In Armenian households, elders repeat another quiet rule: «Նոր տարուն սեղանը դատարկ չի լինի»

The table should not be empty on New Year's.

The table must be full, as emptiness is believed to invite lack. Bread, cheeses, cured meats, sweets such as homemade cakes and "gata" (a sweet, buttery pastry) and celebratory main dishes, including dolma (minced meat, rice, herbs and spices rolled into tender grape leaves or cabbage leaves), as well as khashlama (rustic stewed beef), ghapama (whole pumpkin stuffed with cooked rice, dried fruits and nuts, honey and butter), traditionally grace the Armenian New Year table.

Similarly, Chinese New Year tables and the reunion dinner is also abundant, with each dish carrying meaning: jiaozi (dumplings) shaped like ancient ingots to signify wealth, whole fish (yu) for surplus, niangao (glutinous rice cake) for rising prosperity, longevity noodles for long life, and braised pork prepared on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month as part of pre-festival rituals. 

So, in both cultures, food is not just for consumption. It is believed that to display abundance is to invite it.

Emotional discipline as cultural wisdom

If abundance must be shown, sorrow must be contained. In Armenian folklore, one hears a gentle but firm warning:

«Նոր տարուն լաց չեն լինի»

Do not cry on New Year's Day.

The Chinese equivalent is equally direct:

过年不能哭。(Guonian bu neng ku)

You must not cry during New Year's.

Although viewed through the lens of a modern observer, such sayings may appear emotionally restrictive; in context, they simply helped us practice ritual emotional hygiene.  

Cleaning, noise, and the management of fate

Both cultures insist that cleaning must be done before New Year's, not during it. To clean on the first day risks sweeping away luck. What remains must remain.

Noise, too, plays a shared role. Firecrackers in China, loud gatherings, and fire rituals in older Armenian traditions both aimed to ward off evil spirits and misfortune.

Armenian traditions, particularly surrounding the ancient festival of Trndez/Derendez (or Dyarnt'arach), utilize loud, community gatherings and fire rituals (jumping over a bonfire) specifically to ward off misfortune, evil spirits and the cold of winter. Rooted in pre-Christian pagan sun and fire worship, associated with the god Vahagn, these traditions have persisted for centuries to ensure prosperity and fertility.

In comparison, a popular Chinese legend associated with the Spring Festival involves Nian, a mythical beast that emerges every winter to devour crops, livestock, and even villagers. People discovered that Nian feared loud noises, bright lights and the color red. Thus, fireworks, red lanterns and red clothing became essential elements of the celebration.

Even today, whether in modern cities built of pink tuff stone like Yerevan or illuminated by glass towers and LED screens in China's megacities, these ancient instincts and convergences persist.

As Armenia and China find themselves interconnected once more through the contemporary networks of the Belt and Road Initiative, these cultural parallels acquire renewed relevance and help us see modern New Year's celebrations not only as a starting point but also as the latest chapter in an older story of cultural wisdom and memory across Eurasia.

On the First Day of the Year

There are moments time draws near.

Different customs, different air —

yet the same shared silent prayer.

What you offer the year, the year offers back.

What you carry in cheer, you are less likely to lack.

Do not cry, elders say.

Let no sorrow lead the way.

Sweep before midnight.

Leave the threshold light.

Strike a spark.

Dispel the dark.

Across mountains and river-sphere,

two civilizations, far yet near,

arrived at the same frontier:

Time leans close, draws by near, 

And it whispers – Happy New Year!