Spring Festival listed as UN floating holiday

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 22 (Xinhua News Agency) -- The Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, has been officially listed as a UN floating holiday in its calendar of conferences and meetings as from 2024.

The UN General Assembly, in a resolution, acknowledges the significance of the Lunar New Year, which is observed in many UN member states, and invites the UN bodies at headquarters and other duty stations, where observed, to avoid holding meetings on the Lunar New Year.

The resolution, adopted on Friday without a vote, encourages this arrangement to be taken into account when drafting future calendars of conferences and meetings.

Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said after the adoption of the resolution that the Spring Festival, as a traditional Chinese holiday featuring family reunion and good wishes for the coming year, not only bears the ideas of the Chinese civilization of peace and harmony but also carries the common values of humanity such as harmonious family, social inclusion and sound relationship between man and nature.

Many countries list the Spring Festival as a national holiday, and about one-fifth of humanity celebrates this festival in various ways, he added.

Dai said China's efforts to promote the Spring Festival as a UN holiday is a pragmatic step toward realizing its Global Civilization Initiative and advocating for diversity in civilizations.

The resolution serves as a showcase of the influence of Chinese civilization and aims to enhance interactions between diverse civilizations worldwide. It also reflects the values of diversity and inclusion promoted by the United Nations, he said.

The listing of the Spring Festival as a UN holiday was widely welcomed among member states and staff members of the UN Secretariat, Dai added.

The United Nations identifies globally observed holidays as floating holidays and refrains from scheduling meetings on such occasions.

People in China will have a leave to celebrate the Spring Festival 2024

22日，第78届联合国大会协商一致通过决议，将春节（农历新年）确定为联合国假日。中国常驻联合国代表团临时代办戴兵大使在联大决议通过后表示，春节作为中国传统民俗节日，不仅是阖家团圆、辞旧迎新的日子，传承着和平、和睦、和谐等中华文明理念，也承载着家庭和睦、社会包容、人与自然和谐共生等全人类共同价值。许多国家和地区把春节作为法定节假日，全球约五分之一的人口以不同形式庆祝春节。戴兵大使指出，中国推动春节成为联合国假日，是践行全球文明倡议、倡导尊重世界文明多样性的务实行动。春节正式成为联合国假日，充分展现了中华文明的传播力影响力，将有力促进世界不同文明的交流互鉴，积极体现联合国倡导的多元、包容文化价值理念。联大决议将春节确定为联合国假日，得到了联合国会员国和联合国秘书处工作人员的热烈欢迎和踊跃支持。

联合国除了东道国的重要法定假日外，可由联大通过决议，把世界范围内广泛庆祝的节日确定为联合国假日，在当天尽量避免安排会议活动。联合国秘书长每年都在春节发表贺辞，向中国及所有庆祝春节（农历新年）的各国人民致以节日问候和祝福。