1. Get a 红包hóng bāo (Red envelop with money) from my parents.
2. Have a big family reunion and prepare for those annoying questions such as: 你怎么还是单身？nǐ zěn me hái shìdān shēn（why are you still single?）
3. Play 麻将Mahjong with my cousins.
4. Watch and ridicule 春晚chūn wǎn (annual show on Chinese New Year’s Eve)
5. Play with and watch fireworks.
6. Eat a lot of food.

It’s kind of boring, but one thing that’s even more boring is having to repeat some formula words all the time to family or friends. If you have a Chinese neighbor or friend, you can try these phrases with them and at least you can make them happy.. Let’s check these words.

恭喜发财(gōngxǐ fācái) May you come into a good fortune!
大吉大利(dàjí dàlì) Good Luck!
万事如意(wànshì rúyì) All the best!
健康长寿(jiànkāng chángshòu) Live long and prosper!

I think these Chinese New Year phrases are enough to meet your social needs during the holiday. However, you may already know that Chinese culture is a little superstitious. So we have a lot of taboos for New Year that you should be aware of. Here are some examples:

1. Don’t say anything unlucky, for example: the Chinese word ‘death’, ‘unfortunate’, ‘lose’ and so on.
2. Don’t break anything.
3. Don’t sweep your house and throw trash away.
4. Don’t finish your fish dish.

Some of these taboos we can avoid but others may be out of your control. So you may wonder, how about when a kid breaks a cup? Don’t worry you can still fix it with a simple phrase. Read after me:

岁岁平安(suì suì píng ān) Peace all year round

Since the first two character “岁(suì)岁(suì) year around” sounds like the word “碎(suì)(broken)”, we have changed the unlucky accident into a good wish. Or how about if someone says one of the unlucky words? You can say this phrase right away:

童言无忌(tóng wú wú jì) It literally means “children say everything but take no offense”. It’s kind like “knock on woods”.

With this saying, no matter what you say, it won’t come true. These are a few things that you can take with you to wish people well and bring luck and fortune to them even if taboos are broken.

Now you know what Chinese families do, what they try to avoid and those magic words you can use them to bless others for the holiday. Also, you are ready to save the blessings of others when they may do one of the many taboos. Well I am ready for a long break with the upcoming holiday and I wish you all:

新春快乐(xīn chūn kuài lè)！
Happy Spring Festival!

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As a foreigner in China, it’s likely you’ll be invited to join your公司年会 / gōngsī nián huì (company annual meeting). If you have a close Chinese friend or partner, you might even be invited to a团圆饭 / tuányuán fàn (the New Year’s Eve family reunion).

To equip you for both scenarios, we’ve put together some handy phrases, plus a few cultural tidbits.

公司年会 / gōngsī nián huì / Company Annual Meeting

The general purpose of the 公司年会 is to celebrate the past Lunar year of business, and look forward to the next. Speeches will be made to summarize the company’s achievements and plans, and to recognize outstanding employees. There may be a lucky draw and, very often, there’ll be a whole program of dancing, singing and other performances. You may well be roped into getting up on stage too, so be prepared to get involved!

Useful phrases for公司年会:

年夜饭/ niányè fàn / Chinese New Year’s Eve Family Meal

The 年夜饭/ niányè fàn or团圆饭/ tuányuán fàn is held on Chinese New Year’s Eve with the family (团圆饭 is literally “reunion meal”). It’s a leisurely paced meal either at home or in a restaurant, with an array of dishes, lots of chatting and general family fun. Everyone, including kids, then stays up until midnight to see in the new Lunar Year and set off a storm of firecrackers (the tradition is to use the loud bangs to scare off evil spirits from the New Year).

Useful phrases for年夜饭:

Any particular etiquette to watch out for during these celebrations?

• Let senior members sit and start eating first.
• When you clink glasses with others, your cup edge should be lower than others’. This is to show your respect.
• Gifts are customary at the年夜饭, so bring along fruit (such as apples, which symbolize peace and safety), wine, or tea.
• You’ll want to prepare 红包 / hóngbāo for the kids, which are the red envelopes containing cash.

Don’t worry about getting it all right though! As a 外宾 / wàibīn (foreign guest), you’ll find Chinese are very hospitable and grateful for any amount of effort you make to join in.

Embrace the feasting and the firecrackers, and enjoy. 新年快乐!

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The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month (sometimes two months) later than the Gregorian calendar. Take the coming Chinese Year of the Dragon for example, the 1st day of the Chinese lunar new year will fall on Feb. 10, 2024.

Strictly speaking, preparations for the celebration begin weeks before the actual festival. Many cultural customs accompany the Spring Festival, where some are still followed today, but others have weakened over time. Let’s take a look at a few traditions that most Chinese people will typically do for the holiday.

Laba Festival and Laba porridge

Laba Festival falls on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month. The 12th lunar month is called ‘腊月(Là yuè).’ in Chinese and eight is pronounced ‘八(bā)’, which is how the name ‘腊八(Làbā)’ was derived. It was originally an occasion for people to give sacrifices to their ancestors, and to pray to heaven and earth for a good harvest and good luck for the family. Many years later, it has become a Laba rice porridge eating event. 腊八粥(Làbāzhōu, laba porridge), a delicious kind of porridge made with glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job’s tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko. The boiling of the Laba porridge is not only regarded as a day of sacrifice, but also the day on which Sakyamuni (founder of Buddhism) realized truth and became a Buddha.

Here’s an old song about preparations for the Spring Festival.
腊月歌(Làyuè gē The 12th Lunar Month)
二十三，糖瓜儿粘;(Èrshísān, táng guār zhān; On the 23rd day, have sticky Tanggua candy)
二十四, 扫房日；(èr shí sì，sǎo fánɡ rì；On 24th day, make a thorough clean up;)
二十五，冻豆腐;(Èrshíwǔ, dòng dòufu; On the 25th day, make frozen tofu)
二十六，炖白肉;(Èrshíliù, dùn báiròu; On the 26th day, stew the pork)
二十七，宰公鸡；(Èrshíqī, zǎi gōngjī; On the 27th day, make the chicken)
二十八，把面发；(Èrshíbā, bǎ miàn fā; On the 28th day, ferment the dough)
二十九，蒸馒头；(Èrshíjiǔ, zhēng mántou; On the 29th day, steam Mantou)

The 23rd day of the腊月(Là yuè, 12th lunar month) is called 小年(Xiǎo nián, Preliminary Eve). At this time, people worship the 灶王爷(Zào wángyé, Kitchen God) with 糖瓜(táng guā, a kind of candy). It is said that the Kitchen God of China is a god who likes to gossip very much. So on the 23rd day of the last month of every year, he must go back to heaven to report on the conduct of families. So people give him some sweet and sticky candies called 糖瓜(táng guā) to keep him speaking.

On the 29th day, people will steam Mantou and the dough for making steamed buns, which was fermented a day in advance.

Before the Lunar New Year comes, it is a tradition for every Chinese family to thoroughly cleanse the house. Families will clean their clothes, bedclothes and all their utensils in order to sweep away any ill fortune and to make way for good incoming luck.

Then people begin decorating their clean rooms with an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The content varies from house owners’ wishes for a bright future to good luck for the New Year. Also, pictures of the god of doors and wealth will be posted on front doors to ward off evil spirits and welcome peace and abundance.

Windows will be decorated with red color paper-cuts with popular themes of good fortune, happiness, wealth and longevity. All the trimmings are red to scare away the monster年(Nián) as it is afraid of the color red.

People also have debts paid or repaid and will visit to the barber for haircuts and hair-does that will be necessary as a custom. This tradition is gladly obeyed as it symbolizes a fresh start.

New clothes will be sewn or purchased as another preparation. New clothing in the special red colour are bought and will be worn for the first time in the early hours of the new year. Not only does the red colour scare the monster 年(Nián), but new cloth also symbolizes a new start.

Buying firecrackers and fireworks

Setting off firecrackers (放鞭炮 – fàng biān pào)and fireworks(放烟花) has been the most practiced custom during the Spring Festival. It is believed that doing so helps keep年(the evil beast) away, as well as other evil spirits in general. Once in the mid-1990s, the government took safety, noise and pollution factors into consideration and banned fireworks in major cities. Now, however, almost all cities have lifted the ban to give way for such a long-held tradition around Spring Festival.

The Lunar 2024 (the Year of the Dragon) is coming soon. It starts from Feb. 10, 2024 and lasts to Feb. 24, 2024. I would also like introduce a few special words, you can use them to express your wishes to your Chinese friends during the spring festival:

• 春节快乐(chūn jié kuài lè, Happy Spring Festival)
• 龙马精神(lóngmǎ jīngshén, vigorous spirit)
• 龙年大吉(lóng nián dàjí, Good luck in the Year of the Dragon)
• 吉祥如意(jíxiáng rúyì, good fortune as one wishes)
• 心想事成(xīn xiǎng ship chéng, May all your wishes come true. )

And these are also our best wishes to you, no matter how you spend your holiday.

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However, most Chinese people believe本命年 (Běnmìngnián) is supposed to be a year of extremely bad luck and many difficulties. The reason is that people will犯太岁(fàn tàisuì , offend Tai Sui) on their本命年 (Běnmìngnián) in traditional Chinese mythology. 太岁(fàn tàisuì , Tai Sui) initially referred to a star opposite of Jupiter which revolves around the Earth every 12 years, the same 12-year cycle as the Chinese zodiac signs. Tai Sui is said to bring misfortune to people in the zodiac year matching their year of birth. So people should pay special attention to avoid misfortune in their life every 12 years.

How to bring yourself good luck on your本命年 (Běnmìngnián) has now become a hot topic among people. In order to mitigate its predicted inauspicious effects, people may resort to conventions that have been passed down through generations, one of which is to wear something red since red carries an atmosphere of prosperity and courage. People in China will wear any red-colored clothing such as underwear, socks, scarf, sweater, and shirt.

If you don’t own lots of red clothing, even red-colored accessorizes is probably the easiest way to introduce a little red into your life on a daily basis.

Some people wear jade or gold jewelry strung with a red thread because jade also supposedly will ward off bad luck and gold is said to have enough spiritual power to conquer evil spirits.

Please note that the red item has to be a gift from someone else (your family, your friends) and you can’t buy it for yourself.

Some people even buy 太岁符(tàisuì fú,Tai Sui amulets) in a small red paper pouch and carry it with them throughout the year. Typically, Tai Sui amulets will be burnt before the next new year arrives.

Conclusion

So, is this year your zodiac year? (今年是你的本命年吗?, jīn nián shì nǐ de běn mìng nián ma?) And what gift would you like for your Chinese zodiac? Just remember to ask those who give you these present to include red, jade or gold in these gifts.

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