CMG unveils 2025 Spring Festival Gala's theme, logo

China Media Group (CMG) on Friday released the official theme and logo for its 2025 Spring Festival Gala, marking the start of the Year of the Snake in the Chinese lunar calendar, coming in late January 2025.

The theme of the 2025 Spring Festival Gala is "Year of the Snake, Keep Your Spirits Awake!", CMG announced.

The Chinese lunar calendar divides time into 60-year-long cycles and represents each year with a combination of Chinese characters representing the 10 celestial stem, or tiangan, and characters representing the 12 terrestrial branches, or dizhi. For this Year of Snake, which roughly fits the year 2025, the characters are "yi si."

So the logo of the gala is inspired by an ancient form of the character "si" from a form of writing known as the oracle bone script. The logo adapts the character into the shape of snake and then symmetrically reversed and combined to form two "si" side by side and mirrored, allowing the logo to form an infinite pattern when repeated.

The symmetrical placement of the characters resembles the traditional Chinese ruyi pattern, which symbolizes good luck and longevity.

A ruyi is a decorative object widely used in China to express the "hope for wishes to come true," reflecting the theme for the first half of the gala's main theme.

The theme for the second half is a fixed expression in the Chinese language that means "the endless cycle of life."

The Spring Festival Gala hosted by CMG has been an essential part of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration since 1983. The gala includes songs, dance, comic sketches, operas and folk arts.

The annual spectacle, known as the most-watched television program in the world, is broadcast on the eve of the Chinese New Year, when families come together to ring in the new lunar year.

The 2025 Spring Festival Gala will air on the Spring Festival Eve, which falls on January 28, 2025.

CMG unveils 2025 Spring Festival Gala's theme, logo

CMG unveils 2025 Spring Festival Gala's theme, logo

CMG unveils 2025 Spring Festival Gala's theme, logo

CMG unveils 2025 Spring Festival Gala's theme, logo

CMG unveils 2025 Spring Festival Gala's theme, logo

Qatar firmly opposes using the Strait of Hormuz as a tool for exerting pressure, warning that any disruption to maritime traffic would have severe consequences for global energy security and supply chains.

Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said that any impediment to passage through the Strait of Hormuz would trigger widespread economic ripple effects, and that Qatar firmly opposes any action that obstruct the navigation of vessels.

He stressed the urgent need for enhanced global coordination to ensure the smooth flow of energy supplies and voiced Qatar's support for all international efforts aimed at ensuring the security and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

"So, our focus is on ending that war, on reaching a diplomatic solution that hopefully would mean that you would not resort back to the use of the strait as leverage. But, of course, we call on all parties to open the strait immediately," he said.

Al-Ansari also said that diplomatic means is the only way to resolve the current crisis in the Middle East, and that Qatar supports Pakistan's mediation efforts aimed at de-escalating the situation.

Qatar hopes to reach a comprehensive agreement that takes into account the interests of the Iranian people and the people of other countries in the region, while also addressing the international community's concerns regarding the Iranian issue, said the spokesman.

Qatar opposes using Strait of Hormuz as tool of pressure