15 Days of Celebration of the Chinese New Year

Xin Chen

2010-03-24

“Before New Year Day” Tradition

• Sweep away the bad luck. • Decorate the home with

red color paper-cuts and cheerful couplets.

• Wear new clothing, shoes, and get a hair-cut.

• Clean family altars and statues.

• Watch CCTV New Year Eve Gala Show.

• Shoot off firecrackers. • Prepare a festive dinner

with pork, duck, chicken, fish and sweet delicacies.

Firecrackers

New Year Day

• Participate in a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors.

• Give and receive red paper envelopes filled with money or treats.

• All knives and cleavers must be put away on New Year’s Day.

Day 2 and Day 3

• Day 2

Sons-in-laws visit their parents-in-law

• Day 3

The Third Day is known as "chì kǒu",means "the God of Blazing Wrath”. It is generally accepted that it is not a good day to socialize.

Day 5

• In northern China, people eat dumplings

• Celebrate the birthday of the Chinese God of Wealth.

• Shoot off firecrackers, in the attempt to get Guan Yu's attention, ensuring his favor and good fortune for the new year. Guan Yu is the God of Justice.

Dumplings

Day 6 to 10

• Visit relatives and friends freely.

• Visit the temples to pray for good fortune and health for the coming year.

Day 8 and Day 9

• Fujian people celebrate the birthday of Jade Emperor, the God of Underworld, at midnight.

• Tea, wine, fruit, vegetarian food or roasted suckling pig, and paper-folded gold ingots are served as gifts.

Day 15- Lantern Festival

• Light lanterns to worship Buddha on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, first full moon.

• Children carrying lanterns of all shapes in a parade at night.

• Eat sweet dumplings made of glutinous rice flour.

• Guess lantern riddles.

Taboos• Cleaning must be done before, not during, the

Chinese New Year period. • All debts must be cleared before the New Year.• Do not use words that are unlucky, such as the

number 4, which sounds like “to die”• If you break something, you must turn it into a

lucky saying, (“Sui Sui Ping An” for Good luck every year.)

• No crying.• People must wear red. White, blue and gray are

considered colors reserved for mourning.

Chinese New Year

The goal of the Chinese New Year celebration is that we enter into a new year of good blessings.

This slideshow was prepared by Ms. Xin Chen in March 2010. Ms. Xin Chen is a second year student in a Masters of Public Administration program at USC School of Policy, Planning and Development. She is a foreign student from Fujian, China, who joined the program in August 2008 and expected to graduate in May 2010. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Renmin University of China, Beijing.

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