Lunar New Year is the most important festival for ethnic Chinese around the world. It is a very jubilant occasion mainly because it is the time when people take a break from work to get together with family and friends. As legend goes, in remote antiquity there was a kind of evil spirit called "Nian", who would come out looting and hurting the people at the turn of each winter. To scare away the the "Nian" or evil spirit, people would burnt stalks of bamboo. When "Nian" heard the crackle and saw the flames of burning bamboo, it would be so frightened as to make itself scarce. So people actually scared away "Nian" with this kind of primitive "firecrackers". When the cold winter is over, spring arrives in all its beauty.

Preparations begin 1 or 2 months from the date of the Chinese New Year , when people start buying presents, decoration materials and clothing. Clean-up gets underway days before the New Year, when houses are cleaned to sweep away any traces of bad luck, and doors and windowpanes are given a new coat of paint. They are then decorated with paper cuts and couplets with themes such as happiness, wealth and longevity printed on them.

The most exciting part of the event is the eve of the New Year, as anticipation creeps in. Here, traditions and rituals are very carefully observed in everything from food to clothing. Dinner is usually a feast of seafood and dumplings, signifying different good wishes. Delicacies include prawns, dried oysters (or ho xi), raw fish salad or yu shang to bring good luck and prosperity, Fai-hai, an edible hair-like seaweed to bring prosperity, and dumplings boiled in water (Jiaozi) signifying a long-lost good wish for a family. It's usual to wear something red as this color is meant to ward off evil spirits.  After dinner, the family sit up for the night playing cards, board games or watching TV programmes.

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