Top 7 Superstitions Chinese People Believe Before New Year

Chinese have many traditions in their culture, and especially during the New Year days. Whether you are visiting China for pleasure or business, it is important to know. This article will take you through the week before Chinese New Year. Understand all the superstitions and taboos during those days.

A week before New Year, the Chinese people have a custom of bribing the Kitchen God with sweet foods before he goes back to heaven. People believe the Kitchen God goes back to heaven every year to give a report about the family deeds to the Jade Emperor.
In Chinese New Year customs, the people cannot sweep or clean the house on New Year's Day, so they use the week before to do so. When sweeping, you will only sweep inward and not out the front door (because you do not want luck to go out the front door). After you finish sweeping, you can take the trash out through the back door.
Chinese New Year is a happy time not only for the living. Each household will use this time to clean its family tombstones and altars.
Before New Year, you need to be free of debt. Also, nothing should be lent or borrowed at this time. If you are a lender, you should not ask people to pay back the money on New Year, but wait until the New Year is over.
Red is the main color for decoration. This color is meant to bring luck as well as good fortune.
To drive away evil spirits, there will be a line of poetry (calligraphy) written on a red paper and taped to each side of the door or gate. Red lanterns will also be hung for the same reason. People will write the word "spring" upside down on the calligraphy. They believe that doing so will help the luck stay inside the house.
On each wall, there will be pictures of children playing and of the God of Fortune. The children in these drawings will be fat. In China's culture, fat means healthy and lucky.

Hello there,
My name is Dat Nguyen. Thank you for taking your time off to read this article. The article comes from Chinese New Year Customs. The site is concentrate on helping people to communicate in different culture. All the articles will explain what is appropriate and what is not. Also, the site include extensive explanation of why thing the way it is.
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Dat Nguyen

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8 Ways to Celebrate Chinese New Year

What are the Chinese New Year activities for celebrating
this most important festival in the Chinese calendar?

Let's start at the beginning...

In China, Chinese New Year is called the Spring Festival.
That’s because the first day of Chinese New Year falls on the start of spring.
The beginning of spring is a fresh start…
It's the start of a new year of sowing and reaping.
A wish for a good harvest in the year ahead.
(That's how the Chinese character for "year" nian2 年 came
about.)

A cause for celebration!
All around the world, Chinese families...
put up Chinese New Year scrolls on both sides of the door,set off firecrackers (It's illegal in many Chinese cities now, but people do it anyway)
and married adults give children red envelopes filled with
“lucky money”.

Chinese New Year activities begin 2-4 weeks before the "big
day".

Here's what you can do to celebrate Chinese New Year.

It's what Chinese families do all over the world.

1. Clean up the house

Select a day and together with the family, clean up the
house.

This ritual gets rid of bad luck in the ending year and
welcomes in good luck in the new year.

2. Send greeting cards

Send greeting cards with new year wishes to friends,
relatives and colleagues.

Remember to post your greeting cards early!

3. Go shopping

Go shopping to buy new clothes for the whole family, food
and sweets, and festive home decorations.

Looking for Chinese New Year activities for kids? Go to
http://www.living-chinese-symbols.com/chinese-new-year-
activities.html

4. Get ready some red packets.

You'll need them later.

5. Decorate the house

Hang Chinese New Year scrolls called spring couplets on both
sides of the door to usher in good wishes for the new year.

Paste paper cuts of upside down good fotune "fu" characters,
happy children and tangerine oranges on the wall.

Make sure you have vases of flowers in the house during
Chinese New Year.

They do more than just add a new year atmosphere to the
home.

Living plants symbolize growth and flowers represent wealth
and prosperity.

Pum blossoms can be arranged together with bamboo and pine.

They stand for endurance, nobility and longevity.

Other favorite flowers are pussy willow, azalea, peony and
water lily or narcissus.

6. Prepare the reunion dinner

Gather your family together for this most important and
sumptuous meal of the year on Chinese New Year’s eve.

Prepare a meal with auspicious dishes like chicken, fish,
oysters, dumplings, green vegetables and noodles.

They have meanings of prosperity, longevity and abundance.

I've put together some Chinese New Year recipes and a list
of what different foods symbolize at http://www.living-
chinese-symbols.com/chinese-new-year-activities.html

7. Pass the year

After a hearty meal, stay up late to “pass the year” guo4
nian2 过年, an ancient tradition.

You can watch TV, play card games, or chat.

After midnight (or on the morning of Chinese New Year's
day), give your children the red envelopes filled with money
(called “lucky money”).

Put the red packets under the pillow of children. This is
said to ward off evil.

8. Send New Year greetings

Call up friends or SMS them on the morning of Chinese New
Year and wish them Happy New Year, Good Health and
Prosperity.

Visit the homes of friends and relatives with two big
tangerines.

Bring red packets to give to the children at the homes
you're visiting.

These are eight ways to have a roaring Chinese New Year
celebration with family and friends!

Eight is the most auspicious number for Chinese people.

It means wealthy and properous.

Here's to your good health and prosperity in the New Year!

Want to discover the culture of Chinese symbols and characters and enhance your life? LIOW Kah Joon is your guide. Read his Chinese New Year Special and sign up for his free monthly Chinese Symbols ezine at Living Chinese Symbols

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kah_Joon_Liow

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Chinese New Year Parties-Some Useful Tips

For 2009, the 15 day celebrations will begin on January 26th. 2009 is the year of the bull which is also known as Ding Hai.

The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. With a lunar cycle of around 29.5 days the misalignment to the solar cycle is compensated for by adding a month every few years. Within a period of nineteen years, there are months added on seven occasions. This can be considered as being similar to adding days during a leap year.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated with family and a banquet, in honour of departed ancestors is held on New Year's Eve. It is a belief that the spirits of departed relatives will attend the living in-order to celebrate the New Year's arrival together. The feast has the name 'weilu' or 'surrounding the stove'.

In advance of the New Year Chinese tradition is to complete all unfinished business from the previous year. Homes are completely cleaned and the principles of fung shei are applied to ensure that there is room for good energy and good luck top enter the home. On the stroke of midnight as the years change, all doors and windows are opened to let the old year depart. New Year's eve is traditionally celebrated by the letting off of firecrackers as a welcome to the New Year.

A Chinese family home would be decorated with vases of pretty flowers to symbolize the reawakening of nature and you would also expect to see oranges and tangerines (symbolizing happiness) and a tray of candy. If you visit a Chinese family during the celebrations it would be expected that you would bring a bag of tangerines or oranges. If they have leaves attached this will assure that the relationship will remain secure.

The tray of candy has great importance and consists of eight different types. Each type symbolises good fortune of a different type. Traditionally you would find; lotus seeds, longan, peanuts, coconut, cumquat, lychee, red melon seeds and candied melon. The arrangement overall is called 'the tray of togetherness'

Other decorations around a Chinese family home would include wall decorations which typically would be good wishes for the New Year. The common theme would be that they would be on red paper. Red is a happy colour and one that will bring good fortune and consequently it is used extensively in decoration and clothing. Superstition dictates that the appearance and attitude of a person on New Year's Day will impact them throughout the new year, hence the choice of a happy and bright colour.

These themes should be integrated into your own Chinese New Year's party. Your home should be clean and anything no longer used or valued should be discarded. If your party is on New Year's Eve, don't forget firecrackers and to throw your windows and doors open at midnight. Decorate using a red, red/gold theme.

http://www.karnival-house.co.uk/acatalog/ offers a complete range of fancy dress costumes; make-up and fancy dress accessories for Chinese and Around the World parties at http://www.karnival-house.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Around_the_World.html feel free to browse our site to find a wide costumes for your party. Karnival-House holds huge stocks of fancy dress costumes and accessories all available for immediate dispatch. New party lines, including Chinese party accessories arriving all the time.

Article submitted by: KV Sinclair. Keith Sinclair has over 35 years of business experience and in addition to being a part time University Lecturer on Business Studies, he is CEO of Cavalcade; a group of companies operating in the party sector. Cavalcade operates Karnival-House http//:http://www.karnival-house.co.uk one of the UK's leading internet Fancy Dress Retailers. With massive stocks for immediate dispatch and an ever expanding range, Karnival-House continues to strive simply to offer outstanding service combined with outstanding value.

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