Yuandan(in more serious families, the period extends from the 1st to the 15th day) marks the new beginning. In the hope that New Year brings good beginning, people should utter neither unkind words nor vulgar language. Making noises, fighting, quarreling and especially weeping are avoided to deter misfortune. There are even taboos of taking medicine and having sneeze, for it is believed that they can lead to sickness throughout the year. Taboos of the past also concerned the use of knife and the breaking of things. If a thing was broken, the word "break" or any other word importing similar meaning was not used. Instead, words like "failing to the floor and blossoming like flowers" which delivered pleasant senses were used to suggest good connections.

On Yuandan, neither lending and nor giving of money to others is done so that there will be no out-flowing of money during the year. There is also the saying that if a male sleeps in the afternoon, his career will breakdown, and if a female has an afternoon nap, the kitchen will collapse.

5. Ancient rite: In the past, there was a rite called he zheng(proper greeting)during New Year. When a person paid a New Year visit to friends or relatives, he took along a piece of paper or card on which the name of the host was written wit Chinese brush. The receiver of this greeting card would normally paste it on the wall of his main hall to show his respect to and appreciation for the visitor. The quantity of greeting card received reflected the person's public relationship with others, while the names and status of the people who gave the greeting cards indicated the host's boundary of social network and standard of living. Nowadays, because of easy communication, convenient transportation system and wider social network, when people send their greetings they tend to follow the Western style. The greeting is now done by mail and even by email. Today, he zheng is done by simply bringing along red packets and food presents when making a visit.

To be in line with the custom of to giving away money on the first day, families in some places do not pay New Year call to others. Instead, the whole family simply goes out to enjoy themselves or stayed at home for family happiness.

6. In the past, there was a superstition that when a person left his house in the New Year, he must take the correct first step. A particular person would look for the fortunate direction in accordance with the day, month and year of this birth basing on the explanation of Chinese calendar. On Yuan Dan, when a person stepped out of his house, he must go in the fortunate direction and avoid the unfortunate direction. Even people of less particularity also consulted Chinese calendar to find out where the fortunate directions and fierce deities were before the first step out of their houses.

Meaning

From the above mentioned customs, we can see that there are especially many taboos during Chinese New Year. On Yuan Dan in particular, there are more taboos on speech and behaviour than those on other ordinary days. Similarly, there are more activities in pursuit of good cause than usual. On probing the activities and taboos, we have no difficulty to understand that the theme behind is always related to fortune, wealth and goodness, and that people usually concern themselves with a good beginning for the year.

Some taboos may look superstitious on the surface, but they do produce efficacy. If we practise them circumspectively, they will yield practical results. For example, the prohibition of bad words, quarrel, weeping and crying, together with the emphasis on thinking positively even when things are broken, provide some normative rules for people to follow. This gives people the opportunity to mend their ways, to develop good attitudes, and to form a habit of thinking positively and looking at the good side of things. The prohibition of sweeping and disposing the rubbish in the first five days forces people to arrange their things and clear away the rubbish properly at the end of each year, so that no unwanted things will be carried forward to the new year. At the same time, the taboo also compels people to learn to be thrifty. This is because to prevent accumulated things from becoming rubbish, people must be careful in the use of any paper or other things, and thus avoid waste of things.

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