Millions of Chinese will welcome the New Year early on Friday. A day-long festival that, in addition to numerous traditions and rituals to attract good luck, also opens its doors to its most valuable zodiac animal, the dragon.
Log of Chinese New Year activities
Onda Cero’s correspondent in China, Isabel Fueyo, explains that it is believed that what is done in the first days of the Chinese New Year could completely determine the fortune for the next 365. So there is actually a protocol of activities that must be taken into account to avoid destroying in one fell swoop the good intentions that the Year of the Dragon could leave us.
For example, you shouldn’t cut or wash your hair. At least on the first day of the year. In Cantonese, hair is pronounced “faat,” a sound similar to the expression “get rich.” So washing or cutting it means dashing your hopes of making a fortune in the coming months.
In contrast, this week it’s almost impossible to find space in a hair salon. We won’t start the year with black clothes either, especially when we visit friends because they remember people who have died and funerals.
To continue to avoid misfortune, we should not buy shoes these daysAgain, the sound of this word in Chinese resembles that of a sigh and therefore it is interpreted that these purchases will only bring you sighs of disappointment next year.
We shouldn’t go around the bookstores either, because the word book is pronounced the same as “lose” and should be banned from every conversation these days, especially when one of the family entertainments of these celebrations are board games like Mahjong and where, of course, no one wants to lose.
And the last of the known activities that are on this blacklist is cleaning or sweeping the house on the first day of the year. If we do that, we would take with us the good fortune that the change of year always leaves leaves on our houses.
Activities or rituals we should follow
Onda Cero’s correspondent in China explains that the color red is a symbol of good luck in China and must be used in everything, in clothing, home decoration and street decoration. And also tangerines, one of the essential symbols of these celebrations. In Cantonese, tangerine is synonymous with the words “gold” and “luck,” so you can imagine what that means.
And what we cannot ignore are the Lai Seees, those red envelopes filled with seemingly freshly printed bills that are given away to family members, singles and service personnel with the aim of distributing the fortune around us.