Happy Chinese New Year! or Lunar New Year, it's celebrated in more places than just China. It's the Year of the Ox. 
The Ox is a symbol of wealth and success through hard work and resilience; maybe that means it will be a good year!
The Ox is a symbol of wealth and success through hard work and resilience; maybe that means it will be a good year! The festivals will take place over the next 7-10 days and are full of dragon dancers, drummers, fireworks and red envelopes with money. In Chinatown the dragons go from store to store and dance and light fireworks to ward off evil spirits and bad luck.
Some Chinese New Year superstitions...
* Do not cut anything, including while cooking, hair cuts, paper, anything...you are cutting away the good luck.
* Do not throw anything away, including taking out the garbage...again throwing away good luck.
*No giving gifts that are knifes and towels. These are symbols of death. (This superstition is actually all year round)
* Firecrackers on New Year's Eve is the Chinese way of sending out the old year and welcoming in the New Year. On the stroke of midnight, every door in the house, and even windows, have to be open to allow the old year to go out.
* Nothing should be lent on this day, as anyone who does so will be lending all the year.
So sometime over the next couple weeks get some Chinese take out and celebrate!
PS...One of these days I'm going to throw a Chinese New Year Party.
3 comments:
Hey, that was very interesting to read, thanks. I like the idea of opening the doors and windows to let out the old, sounds like fun (and cold). :)
Happy New Year! Feel free to send me a red envelope. In this economy every little bit helps.
You should throw a party...any excuse for friends to get together is always nice. You're so good too. I learned a lot from this post. I didn't know a thing about the holiday until Katelyn came home with what she learned at school. Pretty cool!
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