Chinese New Year

Gong xi fa cai !

Kung hsi fa tsai !

Best wishes and congratulations!

Best wishes for health and prosperity!

Have a good year!"

To prepare for the Chinese New Year, many families:

• Clean their places of business a week before the holiday. Families also clean their homes. This symbolizes sweeping out the old and welcoming in the new. Once the New Year celebration begins, it is thought to be bad luck to clean until the celebration is over because good luck arrives with the new year. If houses are cleaned, the good luck might get swept out or scrubbed away.
• Put away all their scissors and knives because they might cut their newly arrived luck.
• Decorate homes with fresh flowers and small trees for the new year celebration. Different trees and flowers have special meanings that bring good luck.
• Hang special pictures called Nian hua. These are banners that say "Good Luck".
• Hang paper scrolls on the wall that have special good luck poems written on them. These poems are always hung in pairs and are also on red paper. They are called spring couplets and offer good wishes for happiness, wealth, longevity, etc.
• Put a plate of oranges in the center of their table because this is considered to be good luck. The oranges are stacked in the shape of a pyramid. Red apples are also a symbol of good luck.
• Remember the tradition of the kitchen god because it is an important part of Chinese New Year. It is an old belief that the kitchen god is a spirit that lives in homes. The job of the kitchen god is to give a report back to the Jade Emperor (the king of the gods) about how the family has behaved for the past year. The kitchen god leaves the house on the 23rd day of the last month of the year. On this night, the family leaves a special meal for the kitchen god. They may have a small altar or picture of the kitchen god in their kitchen. Families place sweet treats near the altar so the kitchen god will say only sweet things about them. Sometimes they leave sticky foods for him to "stick" his mouth shut so he cannot tell the Jade Emperor anything bad. They offer a prayer and then burn the picture of the kitchen god to symbolize his departure and then set off firecrackers. The noise of the firecrackers makes the kitchen god leave. He returns on the first day of the new year.
• Buy new clothes for the new year.
• Get a haircut during this time because it is believed that this will bring good luck for the next 12 months.
• Hang different kinds of red decorations everywhere because red is a color of good luck.
• Make sure that all their debts are paid.

On New Year's Eve, many families:

• Gather together with extended relatives.
• Have a big, special meal with special foods.
• Seal their windows to seal in good luck.
• Take a long bath because they do not wash on New Year's Day.
• Stay up all night.
• Let the children stay up as late as they can because it is believed that the longer the children stay up, the longer their parents will live.
• Set off fireworks to scare away evil spirits. The door guardians, Chi'in Ch'iung and Yu-chih Kung, make sure that the evil spirits leave and only good spirits enter.
• Welcome the kitchen god back into their home at midnight by setting off fireworks.
• Give gifts of good luck money in special red envelopes called Ya Sui Quain. This is called "suppressing age" money and is supposed to stop children from getting older.
• Visit temples to pray for their ancestors and to pray for good fortune.
• Send special New Year's cards to friends and relatives.

Once again>>GONG XI FA CHAI To Everyone ..

CHeers>......