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Spring Festival in Macao Xiezao, or sending off the Kitchen God is one of the oldest Chinese New Year traditions that Macao still keeps. The 23rd day of the 12th lunar month is the day on which people offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God. The Kitchen God is said to go to the Heaven to report the good and evils of the family on this day for the Jade Emperor (the Supreme Deity of Taoism) to give his rewards and punishments. To give the Kitchen God a send-off, people offer sweets, pure water and soybeans, and even apply sugar on the mouth of the God's Idol so that he won't speak ill of the family in front of the Jade Emperor. Just like inland China, the Spring Festival in Macao gets under way from the 8th day of the last lunar month of the old year, on which the bosses usually treat the employees to a reunion dinner party, hoping for wealth, success and luck in the coming new year. On New Year's Eve, most people have a reunion dinner, watch Spring Festival Party on TV, chat with family members and stay up late to bid farewell to the old year and guard the new year in. The houses are lit up brightly with lamps both outside and inside of the house. Like the Cantonese, it is customary for most Macao families to visit the flower fair after the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve and buy a potted plant such as a tree with tangerines hanging on it. The tangerine symbolizes good luck and wealth and the chrysanthemum symbolizes longevity. Another special activity in Spring Festival is to give lishi, which is the same as Hongbao, the red packet with present money in inland China. Lishi, its pronunciation symbolizing luck and auspiciousness, is given by bosses to employees, seniors to juniors, and married to unmarried. The second day of the new year is called "opening a year", on which a grand "open-year" dinner will be held, with necessary dishes like Facai (a kind of algae), lettuce and carp, symbolizing the right way of gaining wealth. Only in the following three days civil servants are allowed to participate in gambling activities. From the second day till the Lantern Festival which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, traditional
activities like firework display, dragon
dances and lion dances bring the festival to a season of
fun. |
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