Customs and Activities in the Chinese Spring Festival

Usually, people will prepare for celebration one week before the day of Chinese spring eve. People will clean their houses, wash their clothes and bedding. It means to sweep away any ill-fortune in the hope of making way for incoming luck. People will purchase food, presents and all kinds of candies and fruits. New clothes must be bought, especially for children. Red scrolls with complementary poetic couplets, one line on each side of the gate, are pasted at every doorway.

House Decorations

Days before the New Year festival, department stores, official buildings, office buildings and streets will be decorated with red lanterns and red couplets. Decorations for private houses are usually done on New Year's Eve. People will paste red couplets and door gods symbols on doors, and put red lanterns in their houses. The reason why red color is frequently used for New Year decorations is that it is associated with good fortune and happiness in Chinese culture. In North China, it is customary to paste paper-cut on windows while in South China, such as Guangzhou and Hong Kong, certain flowers and plants are used.

Chinese New Year Feasts

There are different traditional customs in different parts of China, but the whole family having a reunion dinner together on New Years Eve is indispensable. People from north and south have different sayings about the food they eat on this special day. Southern Chinese eat "Niangao" (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) on this special day, because a homophone of "Niangao", means "higher and higher every year". In northern China, a traditional dish for the feast is "Jiaozi" or dumplings which are shaped like a crescent moon. Legend has it that the more dumplings you eat during New Year celebration, more money you can make in the New Year. "Fish" is also a must on this banquet. In Chinese, Fish sounds like "save more". Chinese People always like to save money at the end of year because they think if they save more, they can make more in the next year.

In the South of China, the reunion dinner usually has more than ten dishes including bean curd and fish, because the pronunciation of these two meals means "wealthy" in Chinese language. In the North China, most of the reunion meals are dumplings, which are made and eaten by the whole family.

Shousui Staying up late

Shousui means to stay up late or all night on New Year's Eve. After the New Year's Feast, families sit together and chat happily to wait for the New Year's arrival.

Lighting Chinese Firecrackers

Lighting Firecrackers used to be one of the most important customs in the Chinese New Year celebration. Just as the clock strikes 12 o'clock, beginning a new year on the Chinese lunar calendar, cities and towns are lit up with the sparkle of fireworks and the sound can be deafening. Families stay up for this joyful moment and kids with firecrackers in one hand and a lighter in another cheerfully celebrate by throwing the small explosives into the street, whilst plugging their ears. Today fireworks have become an indispensable part of celebrating grand festivals, of marriage, even of opening a new shop.