Names in Chinese
The festivities surrounding Chinese New Year were known as the Nian festival (Chinese: 年节; pinyin: Nián Jié), which may be understood to as "Festival of the Year", or "New Year Festival". A derivative term, Guo Nian (traditional Chinese: 過年; simplified Chinese: 过年; pinyin: guò Nián; literally: "to pass the year"), is still commonly used to refer to the act of celebrating the arrival of the new year. An alternative name for Chinese New Year is "New Year in the Agricultural Calendar" (Chinese: 农历新年; pinyin: Nónglì Xīnnían), the "Agricultural Calendar" being one of the more common Chinese language names for the Chinese calendar in China.