People do like to talk about the customs one is suppose to observe on Lunar New Year, but then that is probably because so few of them are now observed anymore. There is a quality of nostalgia about the quaint customs that gave the Lunar New Year its significance. But it is nostalgia that tends to emphasize how much of the complex symbolism, ritual and taboos have become irrelevant for the majority of modern Taiwanese.
But as with the many family reunions that are taking place all over the island, there is a little space for some nostalgia here about what Lunar New Year once entailed.
It is naturally important to get off to a good start, for your luck during the whole year may depend on it. Getting a horoscope was important for determining your actions on the first day of the New Year. Firecrackers would be lit at the "correct" time, and offerings of sweets placed at the family shrine. In order to make sure all this was done at the exact moment, families would stay up all night -- although this has become more an excuse to play mahjong all night.
The next step is to make sure that you leave the house by the correct door. The correct direction is determined by your horoscope, but in these days of high-rise apartment, compliance can be problematical. The serving of sweets and "auspicious" foods such as red dates to relatives and friends is prescribed through this day, as is the repetition of auspicious phrases such as "eat red dates for a prosperous year" (
Taboos are also a big part of Lunar New Year's day, with bad luck associated with the accidental breaking of crockery. Most cooking of festival cakes is done before this day as burning these cakes by accident will bring bad luck. The use of white sugar is considered unlucky (white is a funeral color).
A wife's return to her family home comes second in importance only to a son's return to his. But, superstition has it that for a woman to return home on the first day of the New Year will make her family poor, this visit is normally avoided until the second or on the 12th day, which is specially set aside for this visit. Elaborate gifts were once given by the man's family to his wife's, all with abstruse symbolic meanings -- but much of the gift giving has now been replaced by the one gift serves all red packet and hongpao (
Traditionally, the third day of New Year was a "red dog day" (赤狗日), considered unlucky for doing virtually anything other than sleeping or gambling at home. Leaving the house at all was to doom the family to penury for ever -- but with many company's opening for business on the fourth day, few now can afford the luxury of this enforced confinement and you'll see plenty of people out and about.
The third day of New Year, according to fable, is also the day of the mice's wedding (老鼠娶親), and in order to give the rodents a little privacy for their nuptials, an early night is prescribed for all. In some families, rice and salt would be scattered about the floor in a kind of red packet for the mice, although why you wanted to encourage the things has yet to be explained.
One the fourth day, the kitchen god, who was sent off to make his report to the emperor of heaven on the 24th day of the previous month, is welcomed back with due ceremony. In a traditional song about the New Year -- in the style of "On the first day of Christmas" -- "on the fourth day you eat your fill" (初四頓頓飽), but how this is distinguished for the excessive eating and drinking of the previous days isn't clear. In any case, the kitchen god is generally welcomed in the afternoon, as his arrival returns the family to a state of divine oversight.
It is on the fifth day of New Year that shops traditionally open for business after the festivities, in a flurry of firecracker explosions.
The sixth and seventh day pass in a relatively low key fashion, but this is just the run up to the nativity of the King of Heaven (天公生) on the ninth day, one of the most public events of the Lunar New Year -- which for much of its duration focuses on the home. The rites for the king of heaven are very solemn, and to make up for this, the tenth day is customarily also given over to feasting.
The 11th day is the day for the son-in-law to visit his wife's family (子婿日) and the 12th day the wife returns to the bosom of her family (歸寧). This formal visit to the in-laws naturally entails the consumption of much food and drink, so the 13th day is set aside for recovery and the eating of congee. But this is only the briefest of breaks before the commencement of the lantern festival (元宵節) on the 14th, which brings the almost month-long celebrations of the Lunar New Year -- which began at the winter solstice -- to an end.
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