Do's and don'ts during Chinese New Year

2016-01-20  Source: Chinaculture.org

Chinese New Year is around the corner and on Feb 8 Chinese people will reunite with their faraway families, welcoming the New Year together. Overseas friends may also be invited to celebrate with them. Chinese culture is quite broad and profound and it is important for foreign friends to learn more before visiting a Chinese family during Spring Festival. Let us take a look at what is suitable and what is not.

Clothing, mainly featuring the color red, is commonly worn throughout the Chinese New Year. [Photo/Xinhua]

Red clothes are recommended

Clothing, mainly featuring the color red, is commonly worn throughout the Chinese New Year because it was once believed that red could scare away evil spirits and bad fortune. Then why it is red has this miracle power?

According to tales and legends, the beginning of the Chinese New Year started with a mythical beast called Nian, which would eat villagers, especially children. For many years, poor villagers lived in fear, wishing the first day of the year would pass as soon as possible. Then a god visited and told them to put red paper on their houses and to place firecrackers to scare away the beast. The villagers then understood that Nian was afraid of the color red. From then on, red became the auspicious color during the Spring Festival. Now, red represents many other meanings such as happiness, prosperity, warmth, virtue, truth and sincerity. So if you are invited to a Chinese friend's during Spring Festival, you are highly advised to wear red clothes.

A thorough clean before the first day of the New Year

Two days before the New Year celebration, Chinese families give their homes a thorough clean which is believed to sweep away the bad luck of the preceding year. Cleaning on the first day is prohibited because that will sweep away the newly arrived good luck. So if your friends need your help for cleaning, you should not hesitate because this means a fresh start for the new year.

Children show their red packets. [Photo/Xinhua]

Prepare red packets on New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve, senior family members such as grandparents and parents would give red packets, also known as red envelope (the money used to suppress or put down the evil spirits) to children. Red packets almost always contain money, usually varying from a couple of dollars to several hundred. So if you celebrate New Year's Eve with a Chinese family, the children of the family would be happy if you were to give them red packets no matter how much money they contain just that it represents your good wishes to the children.

Apart from New Year's Eve, you need also prepare red packets in advance before you visit a Chinese family, because children and teenagers sometimes jokingly use the phrase "gong xi fa cai, hong bao na lai" roughly translated as "congratulations and be prosperous, now give me a red packet". In case you meet such naughty children who are quite common during Spring Festival, you are suggested to prepare in advance several red packets to avoid embarrassment

Select gifts carefully

In addition to red packets, gifts are also usually brought when visiting friends or relatives, such as fruit (typically oranges), cakes, biscuits, chocolates and candies. However certain items should not be given, as they are considered taboos, including: those items associated with funerals such as handkerchiefs, towels, chrysanthemums; sharp objects that symbolize cutting a tie like scissors and knives; homonyms for unpleasant topic, for example, "clock" sounds like "the funeral ritual", "pear" sounds like "separate", "umbrella" sounds like "fall apart".

No haircut or washing on the first day

A good start means a happy life during the next whole year, therefore, there are many taboos handed down through the years.

On the first day, you may consider it a good idea to refresh yourself thoroughly to welcome the New Year such as taking a warm bath, having a haircut and washing clean all the old clothes. But don't be surprised, according to Chinese traditional culture, these thighs are all not allowed because either taking a bath or washing old clothes on the first day means washing away all good luck of the new year. Hair in Chinese is pronounced Fa, which means prosperity. So Chinese people wouldn't have a haircut on the first day of the New Year in order to keep money.

No over early call

On the first morning of the New Year, it's unwise to call somebody before he wakes up. The first meal of the New Year is important for Chinese people, during which they enjoy the meal with their beloved families without others' interference. Before you pay your friends a New Year call, make sure they have finished their meals.

Taboos during a meal

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, known as "beginning of the year", you may be invited to enjoy a grand meal with delicious wine which needs quite a long time to prepare. During the meal, according to Spring Festival traditions, there are many things you need to take notice of.

Firstly you are expected to say propitious words such as enthusiastic greetings with auspicious wishes like "Happy New Year", "Congratulations and be prosperous" and "May all your wishes be fulfilled", while such words like death, disease and failure should be avoided.

Secondly, avoid breaking any dishes and dropping chopsticks as breaking objects during the new year is considered inauspicious, but if this does happen, one may then say “sui sui ping an” immediately, which means "everlasting peace year after year".

Thirdly, Chinese people are very enthusiastic hosts. When you are eating, they usually like to put food onto your plates to show their hospitality. Then it is quite impolite to refuse all the time. Of course, if you are indeed full, just say thanks and show your gratitude to them for their enthusiasm.