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Festival Deeds  
 
A Season of Festivities in Spring
The Spring Festival is China's traditional lunar New Year. The most important Chinese festival is usually around the end of winter and the onset of next spring.

Married Daughters Return to Parents' Home
On the second day of the New Year the married daughters, together with their husbands and children, will go back to their parents' house for the reunion dinners, to show their respect and deep affection.

Sending off the Hungry Ghost
On the sixth day of the New Year or the Hungry Ghost Day the rubbish in the house is being disposed off and clothes have to be washed.

Upside-down 'Fu' Character
Fu (福) is written on the paper squares, which can be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese the "reversed fu" is homophonic with "fu dao le" pronounced as "fu comes".

Pasting Spring Couplets and Pictures of the Door God
In many homes, doors and windowpanes get a new coat of red paint during the Spring Festival.

Pay a New Year Call
An important activity during the Spring Festival is bainian (to pay a New Year call). People start to pay New Year calls from the lunar New Year's Day, that is, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar.

Giving Hongbao
Giving Hongbao (red packets or red envelopes) during the Chinese New Year is another tradition. A red packet is simply a red envelope with gift money in it, which symbolizes luck and wealth.

The Propitious Present of Oranges
Oranges and tangerines are the "lucky" fruits and the best presents during the Spring Festival season as the Chinese words for oranges and tangerines, "ju", sound like luck and wealth.

Firework and Firecracker Display
Fireworks and firecrackers, known as yanhua and baozhu in Chinese, were originally made of real bamboo. They were traditionally set off to frighten away ghosts and monsters so that the New Year would be free of them.

Taboos of Chinese New Year
The events that occurred during New Year's Day may impact your life for the rest of the year. Be careful in your actions. Certain precautions are taken to insure that the New Year will be a good one.

New Year Customs


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