Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 4: Preparing for the holidays
• Part 2 of 4: Celebrating Chinese New Year
• Part 3 of 4: Eating traditional dishes
• Part 4 of 4: Watching a parade
• Tips
• Warnings

Chinese New Year, also called spring festival or spring festival, is the most important of all Chinese celebrations. It lasts the first fifteen days of the Chinese calendar, which is between January 21 and February 21 on the Western calendar, a little different every year. The celebration includes decorations, parades, folk traditions and a great banquet. If you want to join the celebration, there are all kinds of things you can do to join the festivities and pay homage to Chinese traditions.

To step

Part 1 of 4: Preparing for the holidays

1. Clean your house. This tradition is rooted in the belief that by cleaning your home at this time of the year, you are wiping out the misfortune that has accumulated over the past year. Cleaning also prepares your home to receive new happiness.
   • Being clean and fresh is also an important part of the celebration; even a new haircut works well.
   • Make your home not clean when the New Year has already started. Doing so will wipe away the happiness you just received. You don't need to clean for the next 15 days, or at least the first few days if you can't wait that long.
2. Hang up red decorations. Red is the color or symbol of good luck in Chinese culture, and it is widely used for New Year's decorations. The number "8" also symbolizes luck and prosperity, as the Chinese character for eight rhymes with luck or wealth.
   • Stick cut-out paper figures on the window.These intricate clippings usually depict rural scenes or Chinese mythology, and are traditionally hung on north or south facing windows.
   • Hang special paintings and artwork. Traditionally, these images have pictures related to health and abundance, including animals and fruit. You can also hang a "Door God" on your door to keep evil spirits at bay and bless your home.
   • Hang up lines of verse as decoration. You can write your own lines of verse about spring, or you can buy poems written in Chinese letters on red paper.
   • Decorate the house with paper lanterns. These lanterns, made of red paper, are the most common decorations during the Chinese New Year.
   • Paint your door, your door or window frames red for a truly different atmosphere!
3. Hang even more decoration. Finish the decoration with bowls of food, flowers and other treats.
   • Place flowers in the house, such as lotuses. The lotus symbolizes rebirth and new growth.
   • Put tangerines in bowls throughout the house. Mandarins with the leaves still attached symbolize good luck for the new year. Use even numbers and eat two at a time for luck.
   • Set out a bowl of eight candies. Eight is the lucky number. You can use all kinds of sweets for this, or you can take traditional Chinese sweets made from lotus seeds, longan, peanut, coconut, melon seeds or sugared melon.
4. Praise the Kitchen God. Seven days before the Chinese New Year, the Kitchen God reports the family to the Jade Emperor. Show your best and offer him fruit, candy, water or other food. Some people burn a picture of the Kitchen God to send it to heaven like smoke.
   • In some areas, people traditionally prepare tofu two days after honoring the Kitchen God, and eat the dirty residue to show their frugality when the Jade Emperor comes to check the Kitchen God report. But you can replace this tradition with a serving of tasty tofu if you want!

Part 2 of 4: Celebrating Chinese New Year

1. Dress up nicely. If you have traditional Chinese clothes, now is the perfect time to put them on. You can buy an outfit in Chinatown, such as beautiful silk dresses or blouses. Red clothing is associated with happiness, joy, wealth and prosperity, so you can fully participate in the spirit of the celebration. Gold is another suitable color; try combining the two if you really want to look festive.
   • Don't wear too much black during the holidays. Black represents bad luck and even death. This is the time of happiness and life!
2. Go to a Chinese temple. Chinese revelers go to temples during the New Year celebration to pray for good luck. They burn incense and allow themselves to be predicted for the future. Most temples also welcome non-Chinese people.
   • Next to the entrance of the temple there are tubes with lucky sticks. Ask a question and shake the tube until a stick with a number falls out. One of the fortune tellers can then interpret it for you.
3. Fire firecrackers. When the New Year starts at midnight you light fireworks. The firecrackers used in China and Taiwan are very noisy, and they are usually chipped to the ground. The loud noises chase away the evil spirits, so that bad luck is averted.
   • Many people also continue to set off fireworks for the other 15 days, or at least the first four to eight days before they have to return to work. Expect a lot of noise and commotion if you live in a Chinese community!
   • In some countries it is forbidden to set off fireworks yourself, but then there is often an officially centrally organized firework that you can watch.
4. Give money in red envelopes. Adults give children money in lucky envelopes during the holidays. Sometimes it is also given to employees or friends.
5. Honor your ancestors. Show gratitude and respect for what your ancestors did for you. There are many traditional uses for doing this, such as bowing down to an altar dedicated to them, or offering food and drink.
6. Treat others in a friendly manner. Chinese New Year is a time of joy and happiness and it is important to show good will. Don't argue or argue with anyone, and don't be negative during New Year. That brings bad luck.
   • Often visit friends and family to celebrate the New Year together.
   • Greet other revelers with "Gong Xi" pronounced "kong zjie". That means "Congratulations". A longer greeting is Gong Hei Fat Choi or Gong Xi Fa Chai in Cantonese and Mandarin.

Part 3 of 4: Eating traditional dishes

1. Learn about Chinese cuisine and traditional dishes. The big feast is usually the night before the New Year begins. There are many traditional dishes, but some of them have symbolic meanings:
   • Jiu, a traditional spirit, and daikon, the Chinese radish, represent longevity.
   • Red chillies mean good luck.
   • Rice creates harmony.
   • Fish, chicken and other small animals are usually served whole and cut at the table. That reminds us of our unity and prosperity.
2. Make dumplings for the Lantern Festival. These are filled with a variety of sweet fillings and are eaten on the fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year.
   • All types of dumplings can play a special role during the Chinese New Year due to their shape, which resembles ancient Chinese gold or silver bars.
3. Make your own feast. If you want to do a little more than order food from the local Chinese, search the following recipes on the internet:
   • Make your own Chinese dumplings. Make large servings of cabbage or radishes to celebrate prosperity. If you want, you can put a coin or other object in one of the dumplings and whoever finds it is lucky.
   • Make your own spring rolls. Spring rolls are part of the spring festival, so now is the perfect time to eat them!
   • Serve a lot of fish. Fish is a sign of prosperity. Serve the fish whole and make sure you have some leftovers - that will bring good luck!
   • Bake your own pot stickers. Potstickers are a type of dumplings, and all kinds of dumplings are excellent for eating at New Year's Eve.
   • Serve Chinese noodles with peanut sauce. Long, unbroken noodles are also a symbol of longevity, and you can serve them with any sauce you like.
   • Make shrimp with Chinese lobster sauce. There are all kinds of different recipes to be found, from real traditional Chinese preparation methods to recipes that are more adapted to Western tastes.
   • Make decorated "tea eggs". They do not have anything to do with New Year, but they are unique Chinese snacks that look beautiful and also taste delicious.

Part 4 of 4: Watching a parade

1. Find a parade nearby. Check the internet or the newspaper to see if a Chinese New Year parade is being held. Sometimes they are held on the weekend closest to New Year's Day, even though it may be just outside the official New Year period.
   • Don't forget your camera, and dress warmly, because it is winter!
   • Parades along Chinese shops are usually held in Amsterdam and The Hague.
2. Watch a parade on TV. A report of the festivities can often be seen on regional channels of cities where a parade is held. You can also search for the celebrations in major Chinese cities.
3. Watch for special dances. In addition to fireworks, food, activities and music, a New Year's parade also features the beautifully dressed dragon and lion dancers in action.
   • The dragon dancers deftly synchronize their dance in a line, holding a tall, brightly colored dragon on sticks above them. Dragons are common in Chinese mythology, symbolizing the nation and people.
   • Two lion dancers share a costume that represents a large, stylized lion. The lion is a mighty royal character in Chinese mythology, but the dance often includes comical elements, such as a funny monk helping the lion find a head of lettuce.
   • Both dances are accompanied by Chinese drum music.
4. Celebrate the Lantern Festival. The last 15th day of the Chinese New Year is celebrated under a multitude of decorative paper lanterns. Some cities make huge works of art from these lanterns.
   • Many people write riddles on the lanterns that the children have to solve.
   • Now is the time to eat the sweet dumplings. These are called tang yuan or yan xiao.
   • Light candles this day to take the good spirits home.

Tips

• Commonly used decorative themes include fish, lanterns, lions, dragons, gods of luck and the New Year's constellation.
• There are many ways to celebrate Chinese New Year, from specific folk traditions for each day of the festival to local traditions that are unique to a particular region of China. Don't be surprised if things go differently; try to learn more about the different methods when you see them.
• If you are religious then pray. That can also be praying to the dead, or to Chinese gods. Certain days have traditionally been devoted to prayer.
• Certain plants also symbolize happiness:
  • Peach blossom represents happiness
  • Kumquat and daffodils represent prosperity
  • Chrysanthemums stand for long life

Warnings

• Be careful when firing firecrackers. If you don't do it right, you can get serious burns or eye injuries.