Chinese New Year Customs (pt 2): A Week Before New Year

Summary

A week before New Year, the Chinese people have a custom of bribing the Kitchen God with sweet food before he goes back to heaven.
People believe the Kitchen God goes back to heaven every year to give a report about the family deeds to the Jade Emperor.
According to Chinese New Year customs, people cannot sweep or clean the house on New Year day, so they use the week before to do so.
When sweeping, you will only sweep inward and not out the front door (because you do not want luck to go out the front door). After you finish sweeping, you can take the trash out from the back door.
Each household will use this time to clean its family tombstone and altar.
Before New Year, you need to be free of debt. Also, nothing should be loaned or borrowed at this time.
If you are a lender, you should not ask people to pay back the money on New Year, but wait until the New Year is over.
Red is the color for decoration.
To drive away the evil spirit, there will be a line of poetry (calligraphy) written on red paper and taped to each side of the door or gate. Red lanterns will also be hung for the same reason.
People will write the word "Spring" upside down on the calligraphy. They believe that doing so will help the luck stay inside the house.
On each wall, there will be pictures of children playing and the God of Fortune.
The children on these drawing will be fat. In Chinese culture, fat means good health and luck.

You should go clean your room...

Chinese New Year customs are practically endless. To make it easier for you and me, I will only concentrate on a couple of customs that are widely used in China. Let's start.

A week before New Year the Kitchen God will go back to heaven. When he goes back to heaven, he will report to the Jade Emperor all the things that happened in a household.

Most families do not want the Kitchen God to report all the bad deeds that the family does over the year.

What the family does is bribe the Kitchen God with sweet food or a treat. By the time he goes up see the Jade Emperor, he will only report about the good deeds and leave the bad out.

(Sign) Bribing is everywhere, I am just kidding. So if you have a sweet tooth, this is the best time for you to enjoy.

Page

<<< Chinese Culture
<<< Indian Culture
<<< Japanese Culture
<<< Vietnamese Culture