The spirit of the Chinese New Year celebration is traditionally found in people playing card games together, throwing Yu Sheng (Lo Hei) and creating a mess on the table, and collecting red envelopes from married colleagues.
2022’s Lunar New Year, the government’s Covid-19 safety precautions may cause us to miss out on the in-person fun and festivities.
Luckily, with advancements in technology and a splash of creativity, we can still have a Virtual Chinese New Year Party with our beloved coworkers and remote teams.
Year of the Tiger
Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in Asia. Many countries with large Chinese populations, including China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, observe this holiday on the first day of the lunar calendar’s first month.
Chinese New Year was originally used to celebrate household and divine deities, as well as ancestors. It’s a time for family gatherings and feasting. Business life almost came to a halt at this period. The major focus was on the home and family.
Chinese New Year 2022 falls on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022, and celebrations culminate with the Lantern Festival on February 15th, 2022, welcoming the Year of the Tiger. In the Chinese zodiac, the year of the tiger represents independence, fearlessness, loyalty, and high self-esteem.
“Tigers are courageous and active people who love a good challenge and adventure in life.”
Chinese Zodiac
Virtual Chinese New Year Celebration Ideas
You may celebrate Chinese New Year from the comfort of your own home, but there are a few things you can do to make it seem like you’re next to each other. These ideas will keep your virtual Chinese new year merrier but remain respectful to the traditions.
Live Virtual Journey to China
Is there a better place than China to learn about Chinese New Year festivities?
Let’s take a deep dive into China’s history, culture, and traditions with a local guide on the ground. In this live & interactive tour with your guide in China, you will learn how locals celebrate the Lunar new year in style and go in search of traditional CNY snacks in the streets.
For this experience, your team will explore the mystery location of your virtual journey in China and decide together where you would like the guide to take you and unlock hidden adventures and challenges. Suitable for remote & hybrid teams.
Kick start your team’s CNY with our live mystery tour to China with us!
Set a Lucky Dress Code
In Chinese culture, people usually wear red at CNY and weddings celebration because it is considered a lucky color. The red color is believed to symbolize a time to start over.
In the year of tiger, the colors green and blue are said to bring good luck and fortune. To embrace this vibe to your virtual Chinese New Year party, have a lucky dress code of your team’s choices, whether it’s red or green and blue.
Join a Chinese New Year Cocktail Masterclass
Boost your team’s spirit with a live and interactive cocktail masterclass led by a professional mixologist. Your experienced host will show you how to create spectacular cocktails at home. Before the event, all ingredients and equipment are brought right to your doorstep.
Gin, Vodka, and Rum-based drink options are available. Why not add a little something extra? In an attempt to let your team be more creative with their garnishes, you can customize the event into a fun CNY cocktail competition.
Learn more about this CNY limited edition experience
Invite Your Team’s Families to Celebrate Together
Chinese New Year is a time for families to get together and have fun. Because everyone is celebrating from their homes, it should be easier to invite family members to join in on the festivities.
Create a Chinese New Year Playlist
What’s a party without music? Music will accompany people while they are having fun at the party. This will help set the mood and keep the event from becoming too boring. Just like Christmas, Chinese New Year has a lot of songs that go with it. You can make it more special by inviting your team members to choose their CNY songs or favorite music that might liven up the virtual party and create a CNY playlist together.
Play a Virtual Chinese New Year Games
Here are some playful ideas that you can play to bring fun and a sense of togetherness to your virtual party:
Test Your Team’s CNY Culture Knowledge
Play with: Kahoot!
How to play? Use Kahoot to set up a few questions about the Chinese New Year culture and see who gets the most points at the end of the game, then see who comes out on top. Make the winner of the quiz “the most cultured person in the office – CNY 2022.” You can use this cultural quiz idea every festive season.
CNY Scavenger Hunting
A simple game that requires no preparation, other than a list of goods that should be discovered in your team’s homes. Choose an item from your list, such as “oranges” or “red envelopes,” and watch the participants strive to locate it.
Winter Olympics
Play with: RandomDots
How to Play? The Winter Olympics in Beijing 2022 is just around the corner. Get in the spirit by challenging your team in this live, interactive, and fun session. To take home gold, your team will be divided into smaller groups and they need to collaborate, use both physical and brains strength.
This event is suitable for team sizes from 25-100 pax. Teams based in Singapore can opt for a CNY snack box to be delivered to each guest for the event.
The more competitive your coworkers are, the more entertaining the games are to play and watch. It’s a good idea to include some rewards for the winners and everyone who has participated.
Virtual Hongbao
During the Lunar New Year, it is a tradition to give your friends and family a bright, lovely red envelope (known as, Hongbao).
The importance of Angpao is not the money held inside but the envelope itself. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and prosperity for the new year in Chinese culture. As an alternative for your virtual CNY, your team can design their lucky red envelope and send it through email.
What’s inside the red envelope can be a virtual gift like a shopping voucher or a token of appreciation.
Virtual CNY Dinner
Food is an important aspect of Chinese New Year celebrations since dining together as a family is a central part of the festivities. Invite your coworkers to bring their families so that you can eat dinner together as a team. During the Chinese New Year, the food you eat has meanings attached to it because of puns.
- Fish: The word “fish” sounds “surplus” in Mandarin, so if you eat it, you’re wishing everyone a prosperous new year full of abundance.
- Apples: In Mandarin, the word for “apple” sounds like “peace”.
- Orange: ‘Orange’ in Mandarin means ‘good fortune’.
- Dumplings: In Chinese cuisine, dumplings resemble yuanbao, or golden ingots, which were used as cash in ancient China.
- Niangao: ‘A more prosperous year’ is the pun intended by the name “Niangao.”
Share this list of food items with your team so they can prepare ahead. When you share this moment, you and your team will benefit from the fortunate connections associated with each food item.
Share Family Stories
Another important aspect of Chinese New Year is paying tribute to the ancestors. Encourage your staff to share family tales at dinner to include this tradition in the festivities.
Sharing a piece of family history enables team members to develop a stronger bond.
Reminisce the Legend of the Nian Beast
The legend of the Nian beast helps explain why the Chinese celebrate New Year with certain customs. The word “Nian” means “year” in Mandarin, and the mythology refers to a beast that attacked villages every year. By firing off firecrackers and donning red, an eye-irritating hue, an elderly man chased away the Nian beast.
People celebrate Chinese New Year by wearing red and setting off firecrackers because of this urban legend.
Greet Each Other with Lucky Wishes and Sayings
New Year’s greetings are another Chinese New Year tradition. There is a lot of good fortune associated with many of these sayings via the use of puns. Teaching your teams a few basic words to greet each other a happy new year may be a fun activity to do while everyone is partying together.
Say loudly in Chinese to express your joy and love to your family and coworkers!
- Gōngxǐ fācái, hóngbāo ná lái: Wishing you happiness and prosperity; give me a red envelope
- Xīnnián kuàilè: Happy New Year
- Gōngxǐ fācái: Happiness and prosperity
Closing thoughts
The Chinese New Year celebration is a special moment in many Asian countries. Include as many cultural components as you can into your Virtual Chinese New Year office party, and use the opportunity to educate both yourself and your coworkers as you need it.
Just remember to have a good time!
What dates does Chinese New Year fall on?
February 1st, 2022 – February 15th, 2022.
What animal represents Chinese New Year 2022?
Tiger.
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