Chinese New Year

The Origin of Chinese New Year

Celebration

•Dine together,

•Speak complimentary and fortune words,

•Display the Tzun-Lien (Spring Couplets),

•Firecrackers,

•Red bags

Before New Year Eve

• Before Chinese New Year - every family is busy giving its house a thorough cleaning, hoping to sweep away all the ill-fortune and make way for the wishful in-coming good luck.

• Decorate the doors and windows with “Spring couplets

January 1st

• It is also called “Four Starts” - start of Year, Month, Day and Hour.

• Worship your ancestors/gods (sky and earth)

• Set off the firecrackers to welcome the spring

• Greeting/visiting to receive red bags (Walking in the Spring, Bai-Nien)

January 2nd/3rd• Daughter-Coming-Home-Day

• Dog day - dogs get best treatment from human-beings. It is believed that the second day is the birthday of all dogs

• Mice-wedding-day: the entire family go to bed earlier, not to disturb the wedding and have salt, rice and cake to show the harvest and shared with mice

January 4th/5th/6th

• 4th: Greeting gods - this is the day all the gods back to work, since they go back to heaven and report to the ‘Jade Emperor”

• 5th: people stay home to welcome the “God of Wealth”, shops are open on this day

• 6th : now you can broom and clean your house.

January 7th/8th• 7th - “Human Day” - according to old Chinese

sayings, the human being was born after Heaven, Earth, chicken, dog, hog, goat, cow and horse. You should eat a soup with seven vegetables to keep all the illness away.

• 8th - Smooth Stars Day: After the dark, stars coming out in the sky, every family will provide the star-shape cakes with 49 lamps or 108 lantern on the table. Everyone will wish their dream come true from the stars of their own

January 9 - 14• 9th - Birthday of Jade Emperor

• 10th- Open-light ceremony for the new born babies for their bright future

• 11th - Invite your son-in-law for dinner

• 12th - nothing special (maybe Nintendo Day)

• 13th- Try to light the lantern

• 14th- ok, how about game-boy

January Lantern Festival

• Lantern Display, contest

• Lantern Riddle Contest