The Lunar New Year is the great renewal of the Chinese household. Over a few days families sweep out the old year, paste red couplets and guardian images on the doors and give red envelopes to the young. Together these customs form a series of rites meant to clear away misfortune and welcome good luck, wealth and harmony for the year to come. Most of them are older than any single religion and are shared by Daoists, Buddhists and families of no particular faith.

How to do it§

Clean before the year turns. In the last week of the old year, traditionally on the 23rd or 24th day of the twelfth month, give the house a thorough cleaning: dust, wash windows, clear out broken things. This "sweeping of the dust" (saochen) removes the old year's bad luck with the dirt. Finish before New Year's Eve.
Put the broom away. From New Year's Day for the first two or three days do not sweep, take out rubbish or wash hair. Folk belief holds that this would sweep the newly arrived luck out of the door. If you must clean, sweep inward towards the middle of the room and keep the sweepings inside until the period is over.
Paste the spring couplets. On New Year's Eve or the day before, paste a pair of red vertical scrolls on either side of the main door and a horizontal banner above it. Customarily the first line, which ends on a "falling" tone, goes on the right as you face the door, and the second line on the left. Bought couplets usually carry wishes for peace, abundance and long life. If you write your own, a simple pair might wish "peace to all who enter" and "plenty in every season". These are original sample phrases, not set texts.
Hang the fu upside down. Paste a diamond of red paper bearing the character 福 (fu, good fortune) on the door or a cupboard, often upside down. "Upside down" (dao) sounds like "arrived" (dao), so the inverted sign says "good fortune has arrived".
Set up the door gods (optional). Paste a pair of door-god prints on the two leaves of the front door, facing each other, as guardians who turn away harmful influences.
Gather for the reunion meal. On New Year's Eve the family eats together, often with fish (yu, which sounds like "surplus") and dumplings shaped like old silver ingots. Many families first offer food and incense to the ancestors.
Give red envelopes. On New Year's Day married elders give red envelopes (hongbao) to children and unmarried younger relatives. Use clean new notes and even sums, and avoid amounts containing the number four, which sounds like "death". Receive envelopes with both hands and do not open them in front of the giver.
Close the season. The festival ends on the fifteenth day with the Lantern Festival. Couplets and door gods usually stay up through the year until replaced at the next New Year.

Origins and history§

The oldest layer is the protection of the gate. Han dynasty writers, including Wang Chong in the first century CE, describe peachwood boards set beside doors bearing the names or images of two divine gatekeepers, Shentu and Yulü. In myth they stood beneath a giant peach tree and seized harmful ghosts. Peachwood itself was thought to repel evil. These peachwood charms (taofu) are the ancestors of both the door god prints and the spring couplets.

Tradition credits Meng Chang, ruler of the Later Shu kingdom, with writing the first couplet on a peachwood board in 964. Over the following centuries red paper replaced wood, and by the Ming and Qing dynasties pasting couplets was universal. The door gods changed too. From the Yuan period the Tang generals Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong, who according to legend guarded Emperor Taizong's bedchamber from a vengeful spirit, became the most popular pair. Civil officials and figures of wealth were later added for inner doors.

The money given at New Year was called yasui qian, "money to hold down the year" (sui, the year, sounds like a word for a harmful spirit). Folk tales explain it as a charm to protect children through the dangerous passage of the year. The story of the Nian beast, frightened off by red paper and firecrackers, is widely told today. Historians regard it as a late folk explanation rather than an ancient myth. Derk Bodde's study of Han festivals and the ethnographies of David Jordan and Arthur Wolf show how these practices bind together the household, its gods and its ancestors.

Variations§

In Taiwan and southern China the Kitchen God is "sent up" to heaven a week before New Year with sweets smeared on his lips so that he reports well on the family. Many families visit a temple at midnight to light the first incense of the year. Overseas communities often give red envelopes digitally, which keeps the gift while losing the paper.

Safety and good sense§

Firecrackers are a traditional part of the season but are dangerous and restricted in many places. Leave them to licensed public displays. Keep incense and candles for the ancestors on a stable surface, never unattended and away from paper decorations. Luck customs express hope and family solidarity; they are not a financial plan.

Sources and further reading§

Festivals in Classical China — Derk Bodde, 1975
Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: The Folk Religion of a Taiwanese Village — David K. Jordan, 1972
Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society — Arthur P. Wolf (ed.), 1974
Chinese Mythology: An Introduction — Anne Birrell, 1993
The Encyclopedia of Taoism — Fabrizio Pregadio (ed.), 2008