![\"Things](\"https:\/\/s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com\/duchinese\/blog\/images\/077-do.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\nLunar New Year, also known as \u6625\u8282 [ch\u016bn ji\u00e9](Spring Festival), is the most important festival in China.<\/p>\n
Known in China as Chinese New Year, it is especially important because the Chinese believe that a good start will affect the entire year. Therefore, there are some things you should do during New Year’s to bring good fortune, and some taboos that you must avoid. The do’s and don’ts may differ a bit depending on where in China you are located, so ask your friends to make sure. Let’s have a look at some of them.<\/p>\n
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\u201c\u798f\u201d means good fortune, or happiness. The Chinese like to stick the \u201c\u798f\u201d character written on red paper on their door or wall, and doing this means that you will have good fortune in the coming year. But pay attention when you put up the \u201c\u798f\u201d character, because you should put the \u201c\u798f\u201d upside down.
\nWhy? The word for upside down in Chinese is \u201c\u5012 [d\u00e0o]\u201d, and if you take the characters \u201c\u798f[f\u00fa]\u201d and \u201c\u5012[d\u00e0o]\u201d and read them together, you get \u201c\u798f\u5012 [f\u00fa d\u00e0o]\u201d. The character \u201c\u5012 [d\u00e0o]\uff08reverse\uff09\u201d is pronounced just like the character for arrival, \u201c\u5230[d\u00e0o]\u201d. So \u201chappiness reversed\u201d sound just like \u201chappiness arrives\u201d, and thus putting the \u201chappiness\u201d character upside down means that happiness will arrive.<\/p>\n
The day before New Year\u2019s is called \u9664\u5915 [ch\u00fa x\u012b]. On this Lunar New Year\u2019s Eve, it is tradition for the entire family to make dumplings together. Because a dumpling is shaped like the coins of ancient China, eating dumplings symbolizes that you will earn a lot of money that year.
\nSome families also put a real coin inside one of the dumplings, and the person who gets the dumpling with the coin inside will have the most luck that year.<\/p>\n
And old lies behind the Chinese tradition of setting off firecrackers when the clock strikes New Year. The tale goes that a long time ago, a monster called \u201cNian\u201d went out to destroy crops on New Year\u2019s Eve. In order to threaten and put an end to this monster, people would set off fire crackers, and the loud noise from the fire crackers scared away the monster.<\/p>\n
Red is believed to ward off bad luck and misfortune, and the Chinese therefore like to wear red clothes during New Year’s. If it is also your Zodiac Year, you must wear red underwear on the first day of the year. So for people out there born in the Year of the Monkey, red underwear is a must for 2016!<\/p>\n
\u7ea2\u5305 [h\u00f3ng b\u0101o] refers to an envelope made of red paper containing money. At New Year’s, members of the older generation often give \u7ea2\u5305 to their children, to protect the person of the younger generation from sickness or death. Nowadays giving \u7ea2\u5305 to friends has also gotten popular, and with the rise of the internet, this traditional has also reached online. You can now give \u7535\u5b50\u7ea2\u5305[di\u00e0n z\u01d0 h\u00f3ng b\u0101o], or Electronic Red envelopes, to your friends and family using Alipay and Wechat Payment. This has quickly become popular among young consumers. Next, let\u2019s learn about some of the taboos that you should avoid during the New Year festivities.<\/p>\n On the first and second day of the new year, you should not clean your house or take out the garbage, as it means cleaning away fortune and good luck. Chinese people clean their house before New Year, and take out the garbage just before the clock strikes midnight.<\/p>\n Just as with the cleaning, washing means washing away good luck, and the Chinese will not wash on the first day of the new year. No doing dishes, washing your hair, or washing your clothes.<\/p>\n Crying will bring bad luck, so you can\u2019t cry during the New Year’s period, which is the first fifteen days of the new year. It is difficult to stop children from crying however, so some families stick a red paper saying \u7ae5\u8a00\u65e0\u5fcc [t\u00f3ng y\u00e1n w\u00fa j\u00ec]\uff08Take no offense from children’s talk\uff09on the wall to avoid this problem.<\/p>\n Breaking a bowl means breaking good luck, so you have to be very careful, especially on the first day of the year. If you accidentally break a bowl, you can immediately say \u788e\u788e\u5e73\u5b89 [su\u00ec su\u00ec p\u00edng \u0101n] \uff08breaking, safe and sound\uff09 to avoid bad luck, because \u788e\u788e [su\u00ec su\u00ec] has the same pronunciation as \u5c81\u5c81[su\u00ec su\u00ec]\uff0cand \u5c81\u5c81\u5e73\u5b89 [su\u00ec su\u00ec p\u00edng \u0101n] means peace all year round.<\/p>\n If you ask a Chinese people to lend you some money during New Year’s, I doubt they will, because doing so means they will lose money the entire coming year.<\/p>\n At last, let\u2019s learn how to say \u201dHappy New year\u201d in Chinese to end today\u2019s lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201c\u7334\u5e74\u5409\u7965\u201d can be used this year because it is the year of Monkey. You can use \u201czodiac animal of the year +\u5e74+\u5409\u7965\u201d for other years. For example, next year is the year of rooster, so next year you can say \u201d\u9e21\u5e74\u5409\u7965\uff01[j\u012b ni\u00e1n j\u00ed xi\u00e1ng]\u201d. You can read more about the 12 Chinese animal zodiac in our previous blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n Happy New Year!<\/p>\n\n\n
\nYou can read more about these Electronic Red Envelopes using the Du Chinese app<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Things](\"https:\/\/s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com\/duchinese\/blog\/images\/077-dont.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\nNo Cleaning \u4e0d\u80fd\u626b\u5730 [b\u00f9 n\u00e9ng s\u01ceo d\u00ec]<\/h3>\n
No Washing \u4e0d\u80fd\u6d17\u4e1c\u897f [b\u00f9 n\u00e9ng x\u01d0 d\u014dng xi]<\/h3>\n
No Crying \u4e0d\u80fd\u54ed [b\u00f9 n\u00e9ng k\u016b]<\/h3>\n
No breaking bowls \u4e0d\u80fd\u6253\u788e\u7897 [b\u00f9 n\u00e9ng d\u01ce su\u00ec w\u01cen]<\/h3>\n
No lending or borrowing \u4e0d\u80fd\u501f\u94b1<\/h3>\n
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