Mei He

 

 

China is a very large country; different places have different culture and custom. I lived in the south of China. There are many interesting customs in my hometown. Superstitions in New Year are interesting for me in my hometown.

            The Chinese New Year is the last day of December of the lunar calendar. The eve of New Year, people must clean their houses thoroughly. This means that the family's bad luck will be cleaned. If you owe other people money, you should try to return. If you owe debt before the New Year , people think that they will have debt the next coming year. Children also must buy new clothes to wear in the New Year. And in many homes, people burn incense at home and in the temples to pay respects to ancestors and ask the gods for good health in the coming year.

After the New Year, everyone will visit their relatives. They will buy some lucky things as gift for our friends. But they never buy clock as New Year gifts because the Chinese words for “sending clocks” sound almost the same as “sending you to your grave.” Therefore, clocks are sinister gifts. Especial when you visit the eldest, the clock absolutely can’t buy as gift.

The best interesting thing is people choose the lucky number. In Chinese culture, “8”is luck’s number because “8”is "fa" sounds as same as 'to strike rich’. Therefore, children get gift from their parents and family in the red evelop with money of $8 or $80 in New Year. But people don’t like number “4” because “4” is “si” in China; it sounds the same as “die". Therefore, people don’t like to visit friends in date of 4 every month.

The New Year is the most bigguest holiday in China. Superstitions in the New Year are people very interesting because it represents Chinese a culture.