The Chinese Year Of The Fire Rooster begins on January 28. As the Chinese tradition asks, festivities continue for up to two weeks, also known in China as the Spring Festival. Celebrations revolve around reunion, harmony and ensuring good luck for the coming year. People in China think the rooster is proud and confident, hardworking and punctual.
“This year is special, full of expectation,” said Zhao Li, director of the China Culture Centre in Sydney. During this festival, is recommended to visit family and friends to wish them good fortune and prosperity. “That is why at this time you will see the largest human migration in the world …a billion people in China traveling at the same time,” Ms Zhao said. Families have a big dinner together with all the traditional food, including fish, sweet rice balls and rice cakes or niangao. At the same time, this is the moment to clean and decorate the house, “to sweep away the old and welcome the good and the prosperous. ”
Red and gold are considered lucky colors. People will even buy some new clothes. A key part of new year celebrations are the festival couplets, or chunlian, around the door, to call for blessings. It’s good to see a dragon or lion dance, to start the year with strength and energy. It’s not permitted to use words with negative meanings, like breaking, death, sickness, pain, losing and poverty and the use of sharp objects – knives, scissors, needles – for the first three days of the year. Nobody will lend or borrow money and will not buy, give or do four of anything because four is an unlucky number.
