Chinese New Year

What My Family Does on Chinese New Year

         Our holiday is Chinese New Year.  This is a special holiday that comes only once a year and is always celebrated.  This holiday occurs somewhere from January to February, depending on what date it was on the ancient Chinese calendar.  Before this holiday comes, the Chinese families start to clean their houses, replace the symbols with Chinese characters with new ones and more.  On the day before Chinese New Year, the families eat a nice meal for dinner.  

        The next day when it is Chinese New Year, the families first wake up and get dressed to go out.  We usually wear either new clothing or a robe of some sort that is red and yellow.  Wearing new clothes means the starting of a new year.  Our families usually carry bags and bags full of food gifts for our other relatives that we visit.  They include a box or two of cookies, some oranges and a red envelope. 

        We go out to our relatives houses so we can all get to see each other again and give each other our gifts.  The adults give the others families gifts as well.  They also give red envelopes to all the children including their own.  This money is for the children to use in the future and to have a good life in the future.

        We do this for all the relatives that we have.  This might seem long if you have lots of relatives, but if you wait, it can really be worth it!  This process usually takes from the morning until sometimes the night.  When all of the relatives get acquainted again, they all go out to a restaurant to eat at night to celebrate this holiday.  This usually ends somewhere from midnight or later.

        In conclusion, this is what some or most of the Chinese families do on Chinese New Year.  Other might do something different, but this is what my family does on Chinese New Year.  Since we do this every year, this tends to give all of us luck and wealth in the future years.  Having this holiday every year helps relatives we don't really know that well get more acquainted.  But this benefits the children the most since the luck and wealth are meant for the children when they grow up and the red envelopes given to them are for good wealth.