23rd Day of the Last Month: Worshipping the Kitchen God (年廿三：祭灶)

According to folklore, the Kitchen God (灶君) was responsible for controlling the household fire, managing the diet, and supervising what the family does throughout the year. On this day of the year, he goes to heaven to report his duties to the Jade Emperor and determine rewards and punishments.

To thank the Kitchen God for blessing each household with a safe diet, or because they were worried that he would snitch, people would use sugar cane and rice cakes as farewell gifts to bribe him, hoping he would say good things to the Jade Emperor.

24th Day of the Last Month: Fry Foods (年廿四：開炸)

Families used to cook fried foods on this day, including sesame balls (煎堆), crispy pastry dumplings (油角) and egg twists (蛋散). These Chinese New Year foods may be crispy and delicious, but they contain a high oil content and should be eaten in moderation.

25th Day of the Last Month: Steam Puddings (年廿五：蒸糕)

The Chinese name for festive puddings (年糕) is homophonic with the saying “progress every step of the way” (年高), which is why families consume them every Chinese New Year as a blessing.

28th Day of the Last Month: Spring Cleaning (年廿八：洗邋遢)

You may have heard of “年廿八，洗邋遢” – the 28th day of the last month marks the day for spring cleaning, arguably the second-most important ritual after reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve. It’s time to toss out the clutter and free your home of debris and dirt in preparation for the Chinese New Year.

Interestingly, bathing in water boiled with pomelo leaves is also customary to wash away bad luck. You can often purchase small sprigs of pomelo leaves at local fruit stalls or pick up a pomelo-scented body wash at the drugstore.

29th Day of the Last Month: Hang up Couplets (年廿九：貼春聯)

Over Chinese New Year, households will be decked out in red sheets of paper written with auspicious greetings. Traditionally, these were written in black or gold ink with calligraphy brushes, but modern times have seen many other contemporary versions.

Not every household goes for the complete package, but more traditional families will consult for an auspicious time of the day to hang up couplets, and typically in a particular sequence:

1. The right scroll (上聯): The first line of the couplet in 7 characters

2. The left scroll (下聯): The second line of the couplet in 7 characters

3. The top scroll (橫批): An auspicious greeting in 4 or 7 characters

4. Other single words, including 福, 滿, 春: Put up throughout the house

New Year’s Eve, 30th Day of the Last Month: Reunion Dinner and Getting Rid of Laziness (年三十：團年、賣懶)

Not every family has the luxury of seeing each other often. But on New Year’s Eve, Chinese families from all across the country will make their way home to congregate for a jolly reunion dinner, not unlike Thanksgiving dinners in Western culture. It’s important enough in local culture that most businesses will let employees off early so they can make it on time to dinner. On this night, parents also give their children New Year’s money (壓歲錢) to keep by their bed as an auspicious omen for safety.

In the old days, children would be instructed to carry a lantern, incense sticks and an egg dyed red down the street after dinner, yelling out “Selling laziness until New Year’s Eve!” (賣懶！賣懶！賣到年三十晚！). After making it far down and burning the incense sticks, they would eat the egg and consider the job done. Growing up, I’ve never actually seen anyone do this, but it’s always a fun reminder that we should start the new year on a positive note.

It’s also the last night for the Chinese New Year fairs that run until early morning, so many will head down to the parks to walk off a heavy dinner and peruse the local offerings. Be prepared for thick crowds and lots of jostling to make your way through.

New Year’s Day: Visiting Relatives (年初一：拜年)

At the beginning of the new year, elders and married couples will give out red packets (利是) as a blessing for everything to go well in the coming year.

2nd Day of the New Year: Visiting the Wive’s Family and Spinning the Windmills (年初二：回娘家、轉風車)

Married couples will visit the wive’s family on the second day of the new year for lunch and leave before dinnertime.

This day is also Che Kung’s birthday, and Hong Kong has a tradition of visiting Che Kung Temple in Shatin to turn around your luck with windmills. It doesn’t matter if the windmill goes clockwise or counterclockwise – just spin to your heart’s content and bring some glitzy windmills home.

3rd Day of the New Year: Chigou’s Day (年初三：赤口)

Ancestors believed that people were prone to arguments on this day, and thus, they would not visit friends and family nor receive guests at home, instead deferring them to another day.

4th Day of the New Year: Welcoming the Kitchen God (年初四：接灶)

After bidding farewell to the Kitchen God in the previous month, it’s time for him to return to the kitchens (poor him, he only has ten days of vacation a year). Welcoming him back is like receiving guests from afar: you prepare food and wine to show hospitality for the Kitchen God who is tired from his journey and burn incense in worship as a sign of respect. Firecrackers would also be set off in the past, but they’ve since been banned for safety reasons.

5th Day of the New Year: Breaking Taboos and Sending Away the Five Poverties (年初五：破五送窮)

It’s time to send away the five poverties: poverty is wisdom, poverty in learning, poverty in literature, poverty in life, and poverty in friendship (智窮, 學窮, 文窮, 命窮, 交窮). Many taboos during the initial Chinese New Year period, including cleaning, quarrelling, throwing out the garbage, etc., will be broken after this day.

In the past, garbage throughout the Chinese New Year would accumulate until this day, as throwing it out would be equivalent to throwing away blessings and wealth. It must be dumped on this day; otherwise, good luck will be driven out, and blessings will turn into poverty. However, many people in modern times believe this is too superstitious and would have broken the taboos earlier on the second and third days of the Chinese New Year instead.

It's customary to eat dumplings on this day, as they resemble Chinese gold ingots, which have the meaning of attracting wealth and prosperity and are also said to prevent gossipers and slanderers.

7th Day of the New Year: People’s Day (年初七：人日) 

According to legend, when Nuwa created the world, she created chickens, dogs, pigs, sheep, cows, and horses in the first six days. It was not until the seventh day that humans were created, which has since been considered the birthday of mankind.

Everyone should be respected on this day, and quarrels and scoldings should be avoided. Traditionally, scolding anyone in the first month will ruin your fortune for the year, and therefore, parents cannot punish children after they make mistakes.

15th Day of the New Year: Lantern Festival (正月十五：元宵節)

The first night of the full moon in the new year marks the Lantern Festival. Families eat glutinous rice balls served in a light, sweet soup as dessert, whose round shape represents the moon and is a way of worshipping and appreciating it.

In some Chinese dialects, lantern (燈) is homophonic with male descendants (丁), and people believed that hanging lanterns was a good sign of having babies. The Lantern Festival continues lights-related customs, where families enjoy the lantern sights and guess riddles hung underneath the lanterns (猜燈謎).

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