Chinese New Year is a special holiday. It starts on the first new moon of the Chinese calendar between January 21 and Febrary 19. The New Year celebration ends fifteen days later on the day of the full moon. Chnese New Year is a very old celebration. The Chinese do something different on each day. People believe many old superstitions about this holiday. There are special rules about how people clean and what people look like. There are also rules about how people act.
The Chinese believe that it is very important to have a clean house on New Year’s Day. They clean the house before New Year’s Day. Then they put away everything they use to clean. The Chinese don’t sweep the floor on New Year’s Day. They think they will sweep away good luck. After New Year’s Day, they sweep again. First they sweep the dirt from the door to the corners of the room. They leave the dirt there for five days. On the fifth day, they sweep the dirt to the back door. The Chinese believe that it is bad luck to sweep the dirt to the front door.
The way people look on New Year’s Day is also important. The Chinese do not wash their hair on New Year’s Day. They believe they will wash good luck. People also like to wear red clothes on New Year’s Day. Red is a bright, happy color. It will bring good lick for the future.
The Chinese also have superstitions about how people act on New Year’s Day. Older people give children and unmarried friends little red envelopes with money inside. The money is for good luck. People do not say bad or unlucky words. They do not say the word four because it sounds like the word for death. The Chinese never talk about death on New Year’s Day. They also do not talk about the past year. They talk about the new year and new beginnings.
Today, some Chinese believe in these rules and some do not. But many people practice the rules. They are special traditions. The rules are Chinese culture and history.
