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Do’s and Don’ts for the Chinese New Year

Traditions and taboos to usher in the Lunar New Year

By Gerrye Wong | Special to AsianWeek

In Chinese tradition, behavior during the New Year celebration is very important because it sets the precedent for the rest of the year. Children are expected to be on their very best behavior and adults are very superstitious about their own actions during this time too. Certain actions can ensure good luck and happiness through the coming year, while others can result in misfortune.

THINGS TO DO:

• Clean every bit of your house before New Year’s Day. (Especially because you will have a lot of company, and you don’t want to leave a bad “un-domestic” impression in their minds, do you?)

• Always sweep toward the center of the room.

• Make sure all debts are paid.

• Wear red. In Chinese culture, red is a happy, auspicious color. Red is the traditional color for weddings as well.

• Give friends and visitors red envelopes of lucky money, but only if you are married. Otherwise, just sit back and watch the cash roll in.

• Visit your friends and neighbors, before they come and visit you first.

• Bring bowls of oranges or tangerines to friends’ homes to symbolize the wish for prosperity and wealth in the new year.

 Display red colored flowers — like cherry blossoms, azaleas or camellias — around your house to bring good luck to the home.

• Hang a picture of the Kitchen God in your kitchen so he can watch and make sure you do the right things in the kitchen during the year.

• Ring in the new year by lighting off some firecrackers in front of your house, to scare away the evil spirits.

• Burn incense in the house to pay respect to ancestors and ask the gods for good health in the coming year.

• Get your family together and feast on jiaozi, a steamed dumpling popular in northern China, or nian gao, a sticky, rice cake popular in southern China.

• Serve clams to your family. If they open while they cook, this symbolizes new opportunities.

• Have fish in your New Years feast. The word for fish, yu`sounds like the word for abundance, and is considered to bring good luck and a plentiful year.

• O Be sure to wish everyone a congratulatory “Gung Hay Fat Choy” and mean it!

THINGS NOT TO DO:

• Don’t wash your hair on New Year’s Day, as it will wash away your luck.

• Don’t clean the house on the first day of the new year, as it might sweep away all the luck and good fortune in your house.

• Don’t lend anything on this day, as it will signify a year of debts.

• Don’t use foul language or argue, it will characterize a year of hardship.

• Don’t use scissors or knives on the first day of the new year: you might cut your good fortune short.

• Don’t shoot firecrackers in the house. Why? That’s just dangerous.

• Don’t voice any bad thoughts about people — it will come back to haunt you in the new year.

• Don’t go to bed early — staying up as late as possible ensures that one’s parents will have a long life.