There are many Chinese New Year traditions about dos and don'ts. Find out the top 18 things you should not do. Some are taboos on the first day of the Chinese New Year and some are superstitions for the whole New Year Festival season (from the 1st to 15th of the Lunar New Year). 1. Avoid taking medicine. To celebrate the New Year, people buy fireworks and firecrackers, because they make loud noises and can scare away bad things. But, they wait until New Year's Eve and the first day of the New Year to set them off at night. The 28th day of the 12th lunar month (January 27, 2025) - 腊月二十八. People start preparing pasta dishes. The first day of the New Year is known as Yuan Dan (Chinese: 元旦; pinyin: yuándàn (First Morning of the year), New Year’s Day, First Day (or Duan Ri). During the 15 day period new year visits (Traditional Chinese: 拜年; pinyin: bài nián, translated: pay respect, worship, salute the year) will be made to family and friends. Fourth Day of Chinese New Year 初四. The day to honour the Kitchen god who would return to Heaven to report on the family to the Jade Emperor, some place nian2 gao1 (New Year Sticky Cake) as offerings to appease the Kitchen god who then either can’t speak much due to the stickiness of the sweet cake or speaks sweet nothings about the family. The 15th day, also referred to Lantern Festival, is the end of the Chinese New Year festivities and all things are back to normal after that day. It is also the first full moon day after the grand event. On this day, people will go to enjoy different shapes of lanterns and guess lantern riddles. 2025 Chinese New Year (the first day of first lunar month) falls on Jan.29, 2024 and the year lasts to Feb.16, 2027. In folk custom, the New Year celebrating starts from the Laba Festival (the 12th day of the 12th lunar month) or Little Year (the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month) to the Lantern Festival (the 15th day of the first lunar month). 2. Putting on New Clothes and Extending New Year Greetings. On the first day of Lunar New Year, Chinese people put on new clothes, and say "gongxi" (恭喜/gong-sshee/literally 'respectful joy', meaning 'greetings' or 'best wishes'), wishing each other good luck and happiness in the New Year. Lunar New Year marks the beginning of a new year on China's traditional lunisolar calendar. It is a time for family gatherings. It is the most important festival in China (where it is known as Chinese New Year or Spring Festival), and it is also widely celebrated in South Korea (where it is known as Seollal), in Vietnam (as Tet), as well as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and other countries This festival emphasizes the importance of family ties. The dinner gathering on Chinese New Year's Eve is the most important family occasion of the year. Lunar New Year Calendar and holiday. The traditional Chinese New Year holiday is 7 days, starting from the first day of New Year's Eve to the seventh day, with work starting on the eighth day. What happens in the festival? Chinese New Year is thought to date back to the 14th century BC, when the Shang dynasty ruled. meaning Festival of the First Morning of the First Day. This year, Lunar New Year begins Jan. 29. Because the lunar calendar is based on the phases of the moon, the beginning of the year happens on a different day each year. what happens if you shower on chinese new year my chinese new year. If you must, make sure to start at the outer edge of a room and sweep inwards. Bag up any garbage and throw it away after the fifth day. Similarly, you shouldn’t take a shower on Chinese New Year’s Day. 4. Do not use scissors, knives or other sharp objects. Don’t wash or cut your hair on the first day of Chinese New Year (Photography: Element5 Digital via Pexels) On the first day of Chinese New Year, you must not wash or cut your hair. In Cantonese, hair is pronounced as faat (髮), which is the same as the word for “getting rich” (發). How is Chinese New Year celebrated? Spring Festival is a time for families to come together, exchange money-filled red envelopes (红包, hóngbāo), and enjoy delicious Chinese food. The Chinese New Year is a 15-day holiday and includes a variety of festivities depending on the region and its local traditions and customs. Taking naps, especially on the first day of the Chinese New Year, represents laziness. In Chinese culture, taking naps on the first day of the new year will affect your luck and career for the rest of the year. 9. Avoid breaking things in your home 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. The holiday is sometimes called the Lunar New Year because the dates of celebration follow the phases of the moon. Since the mid-1990s people in China have been given seven consecutive days off work during the Chinese New Year. What happens when all of China goes on vacation at once. Leave your hair as it is on the first day of the New Year. The Chinese character for hair is the same first character in the word for Lunar New Year, festival typically celebrated in China and other Asian countries that begins with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and ends on the first full moon of the lunar calendar, 15 days later. The dates of the holiday vary from year to year, beginning some time between January 21 and February 20. The Chinese New Year, for example, follows the lunar calendar and falls anywhere between late January and February. For Jewish and Islamic communities, New Year’s Day happens according to their
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