So I mentioned Traditional Festivals, now we shall zoom in into one of it.

The Lunar New Year

And I have mentioned that actually Korean and Chinese are similar in many ways, so we celebrate the Lunar New Year together!

However, they are still differences.

Chinese New Year is a day whereby all family members gather together.

For the Chinese, it's a tradition to wear new clothes, have the reunion dinner together, visit relative's house, exchange of mandarin oranges. And for the kids/ those hadn't gor married to receive red packets from the elders.

Before Chinese New Year, Chinese would do spring-cleaning, get new clothes, new things and also things to decorate the house.

Usually, the ornaments would be in Red colour as it's a prosperous colour to us.

Starting Reunion dinner, this would be for New Year's Eve. Even one day before, the family would be having reunion dinner together and then countdown to New Year.

Kids would stay up late at night as a form of praying for their elders.

It is told that, the longer we stay up after midnight, the longer our parents would live.

This is called 守岁 [shou-sui]

And then, on the 1st day of Lunar New Year, the family would wear new clothes that they bought specially for this occasion and we would visit the relatives' houses.

Kids/ those who haven't got married would receive red packets with money inside from the elders, this is called 压岁钱 [ya-sui qian].

It is to wish the children good health.

When visiting the relatives, we would usually bring 2 mandarin oranges and the families would exchange their mandarin oranges.

This is to wish prosperity. 大吉大利 [da ji da li]

And 2 is a good number which represents good things comes in pairs.

Do's

- Say nice-sounding words to people

- Be respectful to the elders

Don'ts

- It is rude to open the red packets in front of people to see how much money is in there

- Never scold others or be angry as it is believed that it would be a bad start for a new year

- Don't sweep or mop the floor as it is believed that good luck would be sweeped out

How to say 'Happy New Year'

新年快乐 [xin-nian kuai-le]

Here are links if you want to find out more about the Korea's Lunar New Year: 1 2

Published: 02.02.2013, 2:30pm