Getting Ready For the Chinese New Year

Although Chinese New Year is a few weeks away, Chinese families are already busy preparing for the big celebration. Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is the most widely celebrated holiday in China- and a holiday this big requires a lot of preparation. For many families, preparation can begin a month ahead of time. The preparation is equally as rooted in tradition as the celebration itself and considered very important- so much so that there are step-by-step guides on how exactly to welcome the New Year. So these are the steps many Chinese families follow in the weeks and days ahead of the holiday, which this year is February 19th, to assure that their celebration goes smoothly and sets the stage for a great new year. 

1. Visit a Fortune Teller

With the holiday comes a new year filled with either good luck or bad, so many people visit a fortune teller to see what the upcoming year has in store for them so they can properly prepare themselves.

2. Clean the house

This is a crucial component of preparing for the New Year. Many hours of cleaning are required to get the house ready for the holiday, believing that cleansing one's home sweeps away any bad fortune. Although cleaning is an important aspect of the New Year's traditions, it is only in the few weeks approaching the holiday where it is necessary- once New Years Eve has arrived it is critical that all cleaning comes to a halt, due to the belief that one the New Year has arrived any further cleaning will sweep away the incoming good fortune. Once the house is spotless, it is tradition to hang chunlian, or paper couplets, in the doorways to encourage good luck to enter the home. 

3. Get a haircut

Not only do you want to start the year off with the right hairstyle, but cutting anything during the New Year celebration (even your hair!) is considered bad luck, so better get out and get it cut now! 

4. Hit the shops

It’s important to go shopping to purchase all the necessary items to make New Year celebrations festive and special. The first items to check off on the list? The food of course! One of the biggest parts of the celebrations are the dishes families prepare for one another. One of the traditional foods you’ll see in many households on the night of New Years are dumplings. Other items to check off the list include new clothes and red envelops. The new clothes (preferably red) are to usher in the New Year and the red envelops are to hold the gift of money that it is custom to give loved ones on the day of the New Year. Once you have treated yourself, it is time to treat your friends and family! The red color of the envelops and clothes is important because red represents good luck, something everyone wants to attract during this time. 

Participation in these cultural rituals will assure any celebrators a happy and luck-filled New Year this February 19th! 

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Chinese Parents Plan Conception and Birth to Avoid Having A Child During the Year of the Sheep

Each of the 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac comes with its positives and negatives, strengths and weaknesses, but somehow over the years, the Year of the Sheep (also known as the year of the ram or goat) has developed a bad reputation. This bad rep is taken so seriously that couples are planning their conception or delivery of a child around avoiding the upcoming Year of the Sheep. 

People say that some children are born lucky, but many Chinese parents believe that luck comes from the year that their child was born. The luckiest year of all to be born is the Year of the Dragon, but no other years are frowned upon the way the Year of the Sheep is. But why? The sheep is thought to be passive, kind, and generous. All qualities that are thought highly of in a person. But in a cutthroat, competitive world those qualities can be a disadvantage. Chinese tradition believes that a baby born during the Year of the Sheep will be followers rather than leaders, are destined for heartbreak, and will not find success in the business world. There is even a folk tale that says only one in ten people born during the Year of the Sheep find true happiness. 

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While many people are working hard to debunk these superstitions, it has proven to be difficult. Some parents have even inquired to medical professionals about having a Caesarean section to ensure their child is born during the Year of the Horse, and not after February 2015, when the Year of the Sheep begins. Health professionals have also reported that last spring, fertility consultations spiked and since the window for conception and delivery during the Year of the Horse closed, they have declined. Professionals in the medical field have expressed concern that as fertility consultations rose during the Year of the Horse, abortions will rise during the Year of the Sheep. 

Even as these assumptions present as unfair and outdated to many, it is a difficult mindset to alter. The traditional beliefs and superstitions of the Chinese Zodiac calendar are deeply ingrained in Chinese culture and provide an explanation for phenomena that is otherwise difficult to understand. But as of recent years, other factors (such as political and economic conditions) have greatly influenced birth rates and begun to overshadow the effects of the Zodiac calendar. But regardless, it will be interesting to see how the upcoming Year of the Sheep affects birth rates in comparison to this past year, the Year of the Horse, which is the third luckiest year in the calendar. 

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