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One Week Before. 1. Send off the Kitchen God. The Kitchen God is believed to look after a family’s nourishment and well-being. About a week before Chinese New Year, on the 23rd or 24th day of the 12th lunar month, the Kitchen God ascends to the heavens to report on the family’s behavior from the previous year to the Jade Emperor. Much like the celebration of the New Year in the Western world, Chinese New Year is all about the hopeful spirit of renewal. The holiday’s traditions, symbols and rituals are all meant to wipe the slate clean and prepare for prosperity, good luck and happiness in the new year. Simply put, every Chinese New Year is a new beginning. These Chinese New Year traditions are more than just preparations, as they revolve around meaningful rituals that are deeply rooted in cultural beliefs and values. To learn more about the cultures, check out how Lunar New Year is celebrated across Asian countries here. Editor's Choice: Chinese New Year Taboos: 14 Things to Avoid for Good Luck Pre-Chinese New Year Preparations and Activities (Jan. 7–Feb. 12, 2025) Jan. 7, 2025: Laba Festival. Some Chinese start to celebrate and prepare for Chinese New Year as early as day 8 of the 12 th month of the lunar calendar. This is a festival called Laba ( 腊八 Làbā /laa-baa/ '12th lunar month' + '8'), in the traditional sense, which Family gatherings are also deeply important for Chinese New Year traditions. If family lives far away, the new year is the best time to reunite. Millions of people travel across the country and even across the globe to see family for Chinese New Year, creating a mass travel rush known in Chinese as 春運 (chūnyùn) or “spring travel.” Dumplings wrapped with wheat flour wrappers are a popular item for Northern Chinese families, while in the Southern regions and Hong Kong, families tend to make turnip cake (law bok gow), a savory and wonderfully glutinous dish that's made with daikon radish and studded with various types of pork and shrimp. Rice cake, meanwhile, is popular in Visiting ancestors and offering sacrifices to them to pray for protection from your ancestors for the New Year is a tradition before Chinese New Year. Normally this should be done on the 29th of the 12th lunar month. Enjoy Reunion Dinner with Families. 30th of the 12th lunar month is the Chinese new year eve. On New Year's Day, the families come together to celebrate and everything must be ready for this important fest. Food must be prepared ahead of time, as one of the popular Chinese New Year superstitions dictates that all knives must be put away. Using a knife during the first days of the New Year "cuts off" all the good luck for the coming year. To make Lunar New Year fun for kids, share some stories about the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. You can also find several wonderful Lunar New Year books for kids that explain the various customs. Do Chinese New Year celebration is not exclusive to immediate family members, but among all relatives and friends. Married couples should visit the wife’s parents on the second day of the New Year. During the following days, people visit different relatives, bringing gifts and red envelopes to express care, love, and good wishes. Chinese New Year celebration is not exclusive to immediate family members, but among all relatives and friends. Married couples should visit the wife’s parents on the second day of the New Year. During the following days, people visit different relatives, bringing gifts and red envelopes to express care, love, and good wishes. During Chinese New Year, people have a long list of things to do. From one week preceding the festival to the 15th day after, many Chinese New Year customs are widely observed for thousands of years. From one week preceding the festival to the 15th day after, many Chinese New Year customs are widely observed for thousands of years. Also, Chinese families will prepare ingredients for New Year’s food. Some kinds of meat and vegetables are used to cook dumplings, hotpot and Tangyuan. Chinese families will use specific ingredients to symbolize different hopes and blessing for the upcoming holiday. Before the New Year comes, it is one of the Chinese New Year customs to clean the house from top to bottom to get rid off all the bad luck gathered in the previous year. And after the New Year comes, you cannot sweep during the first days otherwise all the new luck will sweep away! So one of your Chinese New Year activities will be to That's because the Chinese zodiac runs through a 12-year cycle, with each year represented by a different animal: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig Family traditions unite those celebrating. Chinese New Year is heralded as the prime moment for families to come together. Across cities, preparations transform family dynamics, with many traveling great distances to reunite, just as families and friends bid farewell to the past year, embracing the new opportunities on the horizon. Visiting ancestors and offering sacrifices to them to pray for protection from your ancestors for the New Year is a tradition before Chinese New Year. Normally this should be done on the 29th of the 12th lunar month. Enjoy Reunion Dinner with Families. 30th of the 12th lunar month is the Chinese new year eve. Written in black ink on large vertical scrolls of red paper, spring couplets are put up on the sides of doors, windows, or other gateways. The couplets are mainly short poems written in classical Chinese, which express good wishes for the family in the coming New Year. No. 1: Prepare New Year's goods So as the New Year approaches, preparation continues, whether through acts of cleaning, preparing abundant meals, or simply gathering together. The excitement builds, reminding everyone of the importance of family, tradition, and the joyous welcome of new beginnings, all framed so beautifully within the rich lore of the Chinese New Year. Honoring the dead is a Chinese New Year's tradition that's kept to the word. Many Chinese people visit ancestors' graves on the day before the Chinese New Year's day, offer sacrifices to ancestors before the reunion dinner (to show that they are letting their ancestors "eat" first), and add an extra glass and place it at the dinner table on New Year's eve.
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