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Happy New Year

Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional RABBIT
Red
The predominant colour
used in New Year celebrations.
Red is the emblem of joy, and this colour also
symbolizes virtue, truth and sincerity.

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Chinese holidays. The festival usually lasts 15 days. This year it will begin on Feb. 3.
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Highlights of some of 0 101
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the New Year traditions 2

On the days before the New Year celebration Chinese families give their

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home a thorough cleaning. It is believed the cleaning sweeps away the

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bad luck of the preceding year and makes their homes ready for good

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luck. Brooms and dust pans are put away on the first day so that the

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newly arrived good luck cannot be swept away.

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First day: The first day is for the welcoming of the deities of the
heavens and earth, officially beginning at midnight. Many people,
especially Buddhists, abstain from meat consumption on the first day
because it is believed that this will ensure longevity for them. 2008 1996 1984

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Second Day: Business people of the Cantonese dialect group will
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hold a ‘Hoi Nin’ prayer to start their business on the secnd day of
Chinese New Year. The prayer is done to pray that they will be blessed
with good luck and prosperity in their business for the year.
Third day: The third day is known as chi kou,
which means “the God of Blazing Wrath”.
Encounters with family is believed to bring
about quarrels and arguments.
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Fifth day: This is also the birthday of the Chinese god of wealth. In Taiwan,

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businesses traditionally re-open on the next day (the sixth day), accompanied by

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firecrackers.
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Seventh day: The seventh day is known as the common man’s birthday,
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the day when everyone grows one year older.

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About the Rabbit
Eighth day: A family dinner is held to celebrate the eve of the birth 2 People born in the year of the Rabbit
of the Jade Emperor. 1 98 20
tend to be sociable, loving 0
Thirteenth day: This day is dedicated to the General Guan Yu, 1994 and value family and MO 4 1992 1
also known as the Chinese God of War. Guan Yu was born in the Han 200
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dynasty and is considered the greatest general in Chinese history. DOG 2005 1993 1981 EY
He represents loyalty, strength, truth, and justice. According to
history, he was tricked by the enemy and was beheaded. Almost every ROOSTER
organization and business in China will pray to Guan Yu on this day.

Fifteenth day: This day marks the end of the Chinese New Year Red envelopes
festivities. It is known as Yuan Xiao Festival or Shang Yuan Festival or Red envelopes usually containing money, are passed out during the Chinese New
Lantern Festival. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward Year’s celebrations as a form of luck, from married couples or the elderly to unmarried
spirits home. Families walk the street carrying lighted lanterns. juniors. It is also common for adults or young couples to give red packets to children. QMI AGENCY