Blizzard Announce Lunar New Year Celebrations News

Celebrating the monumental achievement of 5.5 million subscribers across the world and topping 1 million throughout Europe, Blizzard today released details on the Lunar New Year festivities taking place in Azeroth soon.

Beginning on January 27th decorations will be placed in every capital city as well as in the regions of Nighthaven and Moonglade to usher in the Lunar New Year. Revellers celebrating the festival will be spread throughout the world, with specific NPCs located in each Capital city and Moonglade.

• On January 29th - the date of the actual lunar new year! Celebrations occur in Stormwind, Thunder Bluff, Booty Bay and Moonglade.
• On February 13th, one last firework show will be held in Moonglade. This parallels the Chinese "Festival of Lanterns"; extra lanterns are spawned around Lake Elune'ara (the firework show occurs over the lake).

Quests can be found throughout the world offering holiday-related items such as fireworks and other memorabilia to celebrate the elder's and ancestors. A number of Elder Ghosts can be found throughout Azeroth, and each time a player finds one they will be rewarded with a token to redeem for special holiday items, including rockets and fireworks, festival dumplings, costumes, recipes, a special red lunchbox with a surprise and much more.

Finally a raid encounter boss will also be making an appearance during the period named Omen. Inspired by the tale of "Nian" from Chinese lore, Omen shall be left as Nian in the Chinese version of WoW. Omen's appearance is closely linked to the Lunar New Year, however new players will be pleased to learn this will be the only raid encounter where lower levelled characters can participate fighting a raid boss!