New Year Celebration

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• Everyone will wear new clothes on the first day symbolising new start and change to a good state of mind

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• It’s a tradition to light firecrackers and have dragon/lion dances in the streets, even now it will be common to hear Chinese New Year songs everywhere you go. Everyone is very joyful and loud. (in folklore people believed loud noises celebration and the colour red will chase evil spirits away

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• The younger generations of families will visit the oldest generations, they will take gifts with them, these gifts will always be given in pairs due to the belief “good things comes in pairs” (好事成双)

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• Everyone will also visit their friends and families on the day, the host will prepare tea and sweet snacks for visitors, the sweet snacks are made from dry and frosted fruits, it’s served in a tray with eight different flavours, as eight in Chinese sounds the same as good fortune

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• Adults who are married will put money in lucky red envelopes and give them to children, the envelopes represent bringing in good luck

• People believe its bad luck say anything bad or have an argument on the day