As millions of people across the world celebrate the Lunar New Year for 2025 over the next two weeks, colleagues at the FA were able to learn more about the occasion in a special online session on Thursday afternoon.
Organised by our Employee Ethnicity Network, Alan Lau (FA Education), Wai Wan (Aston Villa Foundation women and girls football development coordinator), Maxwell Min (National Referee Mentor for BAMREF) and Matt Ho (former FA employee and now a senior planning and project manager at the Premier League,) all offered an insight about their traditions, experiences and thoughts on the Lunar New Year and how they celebrate.
For instance, aspects that were shared included those of Chinese heritage wearing red to celebrate the New Year but people in North and South Korea wouldn’t, as the colour represents bad luck.
Or that noodles are seen as a key food during Chinese celebrations as they represent longevity, while in Korea a special rice cake soup is prepared.
With Lunar New Year falling on Wednesday 29 January, the festivities will continue for 15 days in what is one of the biggest holidays of the year for many East and South-East Asian communities with 2025 representing the Year of the Snake, taken from the 12 different animals represented on the zodiac.
Events will be taking place in towns and cities across England in the coming days – such as London’s parade which remains one of the biggest outside of Asia – and the group first touched on how what was previously known as Chinese New Year has evolved in the last five or six years.
For example, it’s now also known as the Lunar New Year, to include other nationalities from East and South-East Asia who also celebrate it in regions such as Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as DPR [North] Korea and [South] Korea Republic, where it’s universally known as ‘seoll’.
“For me, it’s all about family, eating and just being together and celebrating the new year,” said Wai Wan, who also works as a women and girls’ football co-ordinator for Aston Villa.
“It’s more understated here though, I remember going to Hong Kong when I was younger and I’d never seen or heard such things in my life, it was manic with firecrackers every morning for what felt like days. It’s something else, and ultra exciting.”
Matt added: “Going to Hong Kong with my family when I was younger for Lunar New Year, they’re great memories. I’d never seen so many people wearing red, aside from going to an Arsenal game and you’ll see performances in and around the streets.
Happy #LunarNewYear to all those celebrating. May the new year bring you prosperity and happiness 🏮 pic.twitter.com/7o7PyzVg9r
— The FA (@FA) January 29, 2025
“You’ll go to a food market and people would be frantically looking for the roundest fruit, or the freshest looking fish or chicken to cook because that’s what maximises good luck.
“It makes you proud of your heritage and while it’s a different experience celebrating in the UK instead of Hong Kong, we’re culturally blessed to be able to celebrate this in the UK in the same way.”
Of course, one thing many might associate with Lunar New Year is the food, and our guests revealed some of their own New Year traditions.
“My parents and a lot of my family were farmers, so this was the time they would have the chicken they’d been raising all year and it was the big meal,” explained Alan.
“That has rubbed off on us as a family and food is one of the most important things.”
Wai added: “We would eat a lot of fish and meat, and different food represent different things. Spring rolls represent gold bars and wealth, for example.
“We’d also have these rice cakes for dessert, which would only come out at this time of year.”
For Maxwell, who is South Korean, he reflected on the difference in his upbringing and memories of new year.
“There’s a custom in Korea to gather at the eldest person’s home, so I’d see the process of everyone preparing for the day from my grandmother, mother and aunties from about 3am.
“It’s something you’d only see once a year really and it was a special occasion for me.
“Korean culture consumes rice cake soup, which is quite savoury and not really a staple food so it’s consumed on special occasions like Lunar New Year.
“There’s an old custom of people indicating how old they are by how many of these rice cakes they’ve had.
“But eating anything red at Lunar New Year is seen as bad luck in Korea, so that’s obviously very different to China."
Finally, the group discussed the importance of cultural awareness of the Lunar New Year in the UK and how football itself can play a role.
“There’s now a lot more going on in wider society to celebrate these occasions,” said Alan.
“Even working in football, I’ve seen a real change in this and while there’s still a long way to go, it’s important some of the programmes we’re doing are to help people from our community to come in.
“We should open those doors and let people see football is an inviting place.”
Matt added: “It’s becoming a less secluded celebration and it’s one we want everyone to join in.
“There were decorations in the Premier League office, a special menu in the canteen and there’s a difference between just acknowledgement of it and actually doing something which shows effort and an understanding.”
Wai said: “For me, I want to celebrate and make sure people understand it. I went in wearing red and handed out fortune cookies to try and make it more recognisable for other people and it’s a nice thing.
“It’s getting better slowly, but there’s still some work to do and we’re trying to create a more diverse workplace both here at the FA and in football full-stop. You have to start somewhere, and that’s why we’re here.
Maxwell concluded: “It’s becoming more recognised as Lunar New Year now which is important.
“And being able to share the Korean customs with Chinese people at events like today is something to be proud of."