Not that you’re not allowed to visit your friends and relatives during the year, but at the beginning of the New Year (i.e. New Year’s day and the couple of days that follow) it is especially encouraged. Chinese New Year, or "Spring Festival" as it's affectionately known, is a time to honor familial bonds and ancestral ties. Visiting relatives 亲戚 (qīn qi) during this period is deeply rooted in the Confucian values of filial piety and respect for elders. 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. 10. No brooms during Chinese New Year Hide all brooms and mops during Chinese New Year. Obsessive-compulsive cleaners and Quidditch players would freak out if they knew that it is considered unlucky to use a broom on the first few days of the Spring Festival. Depending on how superstitious you are, this no-broom policy could last two to five days. Visiting extended family and friends during the week of Chinese New Year and exchanging gifts is a Chinese New year tradition that goes on throughout the 15-day holiday. This process of visiting family and friends is called bài nián (拜年), in which you wish everyone a happy and healthy new year. On important days, such as Chinese New Year and following days, people visit ancestral shrines and graves to pray to their ancestors, offer sacrifices and items, and burn joss sticks to open communication with the spirits. A special way for people to express good wishes to each other and an important Chinese New Year tradition is to visit relatives. Generally speaking, people drop in at relatives and friends' houses, bringing gifts or red envelopes, and greeting one another with 'Happy New Year'. From the third to the seventh day of New Year, Chinese people visit relatives and friends. On the third day, some people go to visit the tombs of their relatives, but others think being outside there on the third day is inauspicious because evil spirits roam around. China holds 1.4 billion people (18.4 percent of the world’s total population, but who’s counting?) and every year, nearly three billion people fan across the country, returning to their hometowns. Consequently, the Lunar New Year brings about the largest human migration in the world, as millions of students and migrant workers do their best to get back to their homes and families. During Ms Jennifer Foo, 20, is unsure if a reunion dinner with her immediate family members is on the cards on Wednesday, the eve of Chinese New Year. Read more at straitstimes.com. It's traditional to give children gifts of "lucky money" in red envelopes during this holiday. j w l photography/Getty Images. Gathering as many generations of the family as possible for the holiday is the strongest tradition associated with Chinese New Year. Many Chinese have moved to big cities like Beijing, and New Year is the time they return to the villages where they grew up to be with Yes. If you do not have a certain idea on what material items to give, and then the monetary gift is a good choice during Chinese New Year. Chinese people like to exchange red envelopes with luck money inside. Especially for kids, the red envelopes are recommended. Less well publicized, however, are the 15 days of Chinese New Year, the festival season that stretches from the new moon on New Year’s Day until the full moon on the Lantern Festival. Most of the traditions associated with the 15 day celebration of Chinese New Year date to ancient China. So what do people in Taiwan do during Chinese New Year? Just about everyone gathers with their extended paternal (father’s side) family on New Year’s Eve (chu xi or 除夕) for a large meal, similar to Christmas Eve dinner in the west. They usually gather in their hometown or parents’/grandparents’ home, which is often located in the You know what the first day of Lunar New Year means: tons of visits (virtual or otherwise), a meet-and-greet with relatives, and once again, not knowing what to call your father’s brother or Chinese New Year's Day (Jan. 29, 2025) Celebrations - 正月初一. New Year's Day is the most important day of the year. To have a happy and prosperous new year, Chinese people will do the luckiest things on this day. 1. Setting Off Firecrackers and Fireworks It takes place on Chinese New Year's Eve (January 28th in 2025). The Significance of the Reunion Dinner. If one were to choose only one day of the two-week-long Chinese New Year festival to go home to visit family, this would be it. Regardless of the duration of the mourning period, these rules apply to the remaining relatives of the deceased during the mourning period: You cannot visit another person's house, especially during Chinese New Year. Other people, however, may visit your home. It is to avoid bringing 'bad luck' to their homes. It's a symbol of goodwill to bring gifts when you visit one's house for Chinese New Year (known as 'bai nian' in Mandarin). Don't worry, you're not expected to bring a hamper of expensive Chinese herbs and ingredients.
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