5 Things That Should Be Avoided In The First Day Of Chinese New Year

Kiong Hee Huat Tsai! Happy Chinese New Year! Surely enough, even for non-Chinese Filipinos out there, Chinese New Year has been one of the much awaited non-working holidays in the country, well of course for the reason that it’s rest day and TIKOY!

The Lunar New Year is a festival celebrated by the Chinese every beginning of a year in a lunar calendar. It is not celebrated in a fixed date and the celebration lasts for about 23 days. This year, the celebration will begin from February 16th and will end on March 2nd.

We know that this year is going to be the year of the Earth Dog. We know about âng-pau, dragon and lion dances, the thing about the color red, cleaning, and paying off debts, and the greeting kong-hey!-pat-tsoy (Kiong Hee Huat Tsai). These are the things that we are familiar with and actually grew up to even if we aren’t Chinese. But, there are Chinese taboos during this festive celebration I bet you didn’t know.

5 Things That Should Be Avoided in the First Day of Chinese New Year

1. Washing hair
In Chinese tradition, washing your hair during New Year’s day must be avoided. This is because the word ‘hair’  has the same pronunciation as ‘fa’ in facai. In Chinese language, facai means ‘to be wealthy.’ Meaning, if you wash your hair during New Year, it’s like you are washing the good fortune away.

2. Wearing torn/damaged clothes
You may want to refrain from wearing your tattered jeans or shirt during Chinese New Year. This is because torn clothes are believed to bring bad luck in China. If you don’t want bad luck to chase you for the rest of the year, avoid wearing these kinds of clothes.

3. Never give clock as gifts on New Year
It’s New Year and you want to share your blessings so you decided to buy gifts for everyone. You can buy them everything, but no clocks. The word clock in Mandarin Chinese is ‘zhong’. There’s another Chinese word, just written differently, which means death. Ergo, giving a clock as a gift on New Year’s day may mean that you are wishing her early departure, you know what I mean.

4. No killing.
Well, since when did killing become good anyway? (Killing negative vibes… and feelings!) Killing any animal on Chinese New year should be avoided. It is because blood is considered a bad omen and may cause bad luck and misfortunes.

5. Using broom
In China, it is believed that sweeping on Chinese New year can bring bad luck.  By doing so, it’s like you are sweeping the good luck and wealth out of your entire year.

Sometimes, not doing the bad is doing the good. May you have a prosperous Chinese New Year!