Hope you all had a Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Tuesday 5th February was the Chinese New Year and this year is the Year of the Pig. As is indicated in the name, Chinese New Year is the new year of the Chinese community, every year the Chinese New Year will be on different days as it is depends on the Lunar Calendar. Therefore, this year the Chinese New Year was on the 5th and was a really big thing for the Chinese community.
To celebrate Chinese New Year, the Chinese will decorate their house with the red banners with lucky messages on them, which is also what they want to wish for in the coming year. Usually on the night before the Chinese New Year, it is the reunion night. All of the members of the family will gather together to have dinner, this indicates that after working so hard for a year, the family still stay together as a whole and share the rewards that they received with each other. Also, it is a good opportunity for the members to receive the blessings from each other immediately on the New Year’s morning and marks the best beginning of the new year.
“The Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year for three days”
Unlike the 1st January New Year’s Day, the Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year for three days. In these three days, people will take a break from their works and visit their family and friends. People will send their blessings and wish each other with luck in the coming year. The most blessings that people would say to the elder will be wishing them to have good health, for the people who are working would be wishing them have luck in work, and for students and children would be wishing them to have a good result in school and become a grown up with a good health. In fact, the most common blessings that people will say in general will be “Gung Hei Faat Choi” which means wishing them to become a wealthy person.
“On the first day of the Chinese New Year, people cannot wash their hair”
There are some customs for people to follow during the Chinese New Year. On the first day of the Chinese New Year, people cannot wash their hair, as it symbolises washing away all the luck of the coming year and people will have to face a lot of difficulties through the year. Talking about luck, people are not allowed to sweep the floor in their home, it is because this means that sweeping away the luck of finance away. Apart from indicate of sweeping away the luck of finance, the reason that people are not allowed to sweep the floor is to reduce the risk of breaking anything in the house, especially glass. This is because the Chinese think that this will cause the family fall apart in the year and that is unlucky.
“Those who have married will need to give the red pocket money to those who are unmarried, students and children”
For children, Chinese New Year is definitely their favourite festival of all time since they would receive red pocket money. This is the traditional custom of Chinese New Year that those who have married will need to give the red pocket money to those who are unmarried, students and children. People believe that this is passing the luck to the other especially those who have not create their own family yet. In a company, the boss would give the red pocket money to the employees on the first day of work, as this will encourage them and send love as well as luck to them.
“Chinese New Year is the festival that emphasises family reunion”
Some people may think that the Chinese are superstitious as there are so many customs on what they should do and what they should not during the Chinese New Year. However, all in all, Chinese New Year is the festival that emphasises family reunion and sending love to each other wishing them to have a fruitful year with luck. Therefore it is understandable why they would have so many customs to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
Charlotte Leung
Image courtesy of Dun.can via Flickr. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.
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