How to Celebrate Chinese New Year

 When there is new year, it is a reunion to your family and friends. And I like the way Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year.

When is Chinese New Year?

The Chinese New Year starts on 1st January of lunar calendar until 15th January of Lunar calendar.

How to Celebrate Chinese New Year?

In Chinese New Year, there are a lot of activities to do to celebrate the coming of new year.

#1 Do Some Cleaning to Welcome the New Year

For Chinese, it is believe that doing some cleaning before the coming of new year is a way to clean away bad lucks and introduce good lucks. Hence, every year before the dropping of Chinese New Year, every family will clean up the house for a good luck.

In addition, in some regions, people like to throw the besom and dustpan away for a through goodbye to the past.

#2 Decorating New House

It is recommended to decorate the house with color of red. In China, red represents good lucks, and number 8 represents good fortune. Decorating the house with things red and number 8 is believed to bring good luck and good fortune. Planting flowers at home also brings good luck, e.g. lotus.

#3 Offer Sacrifice to the Kitchen God

In Chinese culture, offering sacrifice to the kitchen god will keep the family feed and have food all the year. Hence, in a lot of families, it is a tradition to offer sacrifice to the kitchen god with food. And some will past a paper of the kitchen god on the wall to express their faith and loyalty.

#4 Having a Reunion Dinner in Chinese New Year’s Eve

Having a reunion dinner in Chinese New Year’s Eve is the most important part during Chinese New Year. In north China, people like to eat dumplings, and in south China, people like to eat sweet dumplings to represent a good reunion with family.

#5 Putting on New Clothes

In Chinese New Year, it is a tradition to wear new clothes to welcome new year. And it is also popular to wear clothes of red color. Wearing red colored clothes will bring happiness, good luck, fortune and energy. Another color preferred is gold, which matches well with red. It is not advisable to wear black colored clothes since it does not bring good luck.

#6 Set off Firecrackers

It is a legend that during Chinese New Year, there was a beast showing up to people whose name is Nian (year). For the sake of safety, people always set off firecrackers in Chinese New Year to scare him away. Nowadays, it is an annual routine in Chinese New Year to set off firecrackers, mainly for a celebration of the new coming year.

#7 Going to Street

There are numerous shows during Chinese New Year, e.g. dragon and lion dances. People like to go to the street to watch the shows in Chinese New Year to join in the fun. Chinese worship dragon which also represents China. In ancient China, only the king is allowed to wear clothes with dragon on. But nowadays, every one is free to wear clothes with dragon on.

#8 Visiting Friends

Another important part of Chinese New Year is visiting friends. It is a tradition to visit friends in Chinese New Year and give lucky money to friends and relatives, to express good wishes for them.

Chinese New Year is a lively festival in China that all the family get back together to celebrate it. It is the most important festival of the year that all the family member will go home for it. Another Chinese New year is coming, and it is time to get back to the family. This year I have prepared a living room lamp for my family, to light up the house and keep it warm.

Source: https://www.sunmory.com/blogs/career/how-to-celebrate-chinese-new-year