I hadn’t planned on turning this into a long term series, but that’s kind of happened. If you’re just tuning in you can read the first post in the series here and then keep hitting the link at the top right of each post to get to the next post in the series.

The first tradition happens before the new year. You clean the house before the new year, and you can’t clean for a few days after the new year. Tradition says that you sweep everything out the door when you clean (sweeping the bad luck out the door), and then you don’t sweep for a while into the new year (or you will sweep the good luck out the door). I’ve always considered vacuuming to be our version of sweeping, so I vacuum before the new year and make sure I toss the stuff from the vacuum into the outside garbage. I would vacuum anyway before company comes, and I like the idea of cleaning and having everything sparkling for the new year.

In China, there are these festive paper decorations hung beside and often above every door you see during the Spring Festival. We do not hang them outside. But we do decorate some inside. I’ve got some paper lanterns we put up in the dining room, and some decorations that we hang from the silk tree that is in there. I also use red tablecloths on all of the tables. And GG bought this really cool dragon puppet in China that we use as part of the decoration, too. I also try to pick up fresh flowers for the table – something blooming and festive. And I ask our guests to wear red.

Tradition also has it that you make an offering to the Kitchen God – sweet and/or sticky food. Some stories say it’s to sweeten him up so he makes a good report on your family, and other stories say you stick his mouth together with the sticky food so he can’t make a bad report on your family when he returns to heaven. Either way, we modify things a bit by eating the food ourselves, and I let the kids color a picture of the Kitchen God. I’ve actually seen it both ways in China, some families put the food out as an offering and others just give sweets to each other. I compare the Kitchen God to Santa Clause, he’s part of the holiday but we don’t really believe he is real (yeah, I know, there are some in China who do believe he’s real, but many do not and they still have the tradition of the candy). Here is a copy of what I let them color. I don’t remember where I got it, or I’d give credit. If I have it right, tradition says you take the old poster down so many days before the new year (that’s when he goes to heaven for the report) and you put the offering of food out before you take it down. Then you’d put a new poster up on new year’s eve. We don’t do all of that, obviously, but I do try to incorporate him into things in some way. I want the girls to know who he is, be familiar with the term, and recognize him when seeing a picture. My solution was us eating the foods and coloring his picture. Your solution may look different.

And then there is the lucky money. All of the kids who come to the house for our celebration get at least three dollars (in the form of three crisp dollar bills) from us, given in red lucky money envelopes . I give our girls three crisp five dollar bills each that morning before everyone arrives, plus they get the three one dollar bills along with everyone else. I let them decide what to buy with their money. My mom also buys those coins with chocolate in them that she brings and gives out to everyone. It’s just one of those things my mom got into her head that you’re supposed to have.

You can look up all of the traditions and incorporate them into your family however you feel works for you. This is what works for us.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 9:19 am and is filed under Chinese Culture, Misc Discussions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.