Xin Nian Kuai Le. It is the Chinese New Year !

Today begins the Chinese New Year. This is the year of the Ox. Happy New Year to all of our friends or Xin Nian Kuai Le.

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. This makes it so that the New Year starts on a different day each year.

Chinese New Year is celebrated with family. Traditionally, it is highlighted with religious ceremony in Honor of Heaven and Earth, the Gods, and for the ancestors of the family. On the15th day of the new year, called the Lantern Festival, a celebration takes place at night with lantern displays and carrying lanterns in a parade.

Here is an interesting house cleaning tradition. It is said that the entire house should be cleaned before New Year's Day. On New Year's Eve, all brooms, dusters, dust pans and other cleaning equipment are put away. Sweeping or dusting should not be done on New Year's Day for fear that good fortune will be swept away. After New Year's Day, the floors may be swept. Beginning at the door, the dust and rubbish are swept to the middle of the room, then placed in the corners and not taken or thrown out until the fifth day. At no time should the rubbish in the corners be trampled upon. To sweep the dust and dirt out of your house by the front entrance is to sweep away the good fortune of the family; it must always be swept inwards and then carried out the back door.

Peace, Health and Wealth in the New Year !

Zai Jain,

Lee