• Clean the entire home to get rid of all the things that are associated with the old year.
• Put away all brooms and brushes.
• Pay all your debts.
• Resolve differences with family members, friends, neighbors, and business associates.
• Buy oranges and/or tangerines, melon seeds, lotus seeds, chocolate coins, and nuts.
• Get flowers (especially plum blossoms, peach blossoms, and water lilies).
• Get new clothes and shoes for children, preferably something red or orange.
• Prepare lucky money envelopes: Get new dollar bills from the bank, red envelopes from a stationery store, and insert the new dollar bills into the envelopes.

What holiday are you preparing for?

The most important festival in the Chinese culture is the Chinese New Year. This is the year 4699 on the Chinese calendar. As with all Chinese festivals, the date of the New Year is determined largely by the lunar calendar rather than the Western (Gregorian) calendar, so the date of the holiday varies from late January to early February.

The public holiday for this New Year, which lasts 3 days in China, begins on the 12th of February. On this day, every Chinese person becomes one year older. While Chinese people do celebrate birthdays during the year, they count how old they are from the beginning of the New Year.

New Year's Days Remembered
Sau Sim Lee was born in China and has lived in the United States for twenty years. She remembers how the New Year was celebrated in her family:

I always think of the Chinese New Year as a very special time for family to get together. Because it is a special holiday for Chinese people, everyone usually gets one day off from work. I remember it not as a day of noisy celebration but as a quiet time for family reunion. Two weeks after New Year's, there is the Dragon Dance, which is a noisier celebration.

On New Year's eve, we would always do dinner with our close relatives. I think there were always nine dishes — always chicken and then vegetables, fish, and other foods. On the first day of New Year's, we were not supposed to sweep the floor because we might sweep good luck away. And our first meal — usually brunch — on this first day was always vegetarian. Then, on the last day of our three day New Year's celebration, we would do a big dinner with all family members. This dinner is so big that we have to have it at a restaurant.

During the three days of the New Year celebration, we would visit friends and relatives and bring them small gifts of oranges and candies. Similarly, friends and relatives would visit us with similar gifts. We would also exchange red envelopes with lucky money in them. These envelopes are only supposed to be given to people who are not married.

When people visited, we always offered them snacks from a red tray divided into eight separate areas. I remember that it always contained black, red, and white seeds. I think the white ones were pumpkin seeds. There was also dried fruits, like coconut.

Because it is believed by Chinese families that the manner in which you celebrate the New Year's day will strongly influence how the coming year will be for your life, a joyful and loving New Year's day will lead to a joyful and loving new year.

On February 12th the Year of the Horse will begin. According to the Chinese Cultural Center in San Francisco, people born in the Year of the Horse are popular, independent, cheerful, and wise. If you were born in 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990 (or in 2002), then according to the Chinese zodiac, some of these characteristics should be true of you — in fact, you are described as a horse in the Chinese zodiac.

• What's your Chinese zodiac sign? Find out and see what your characteristics are on this Web site from the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. Also, check out the Chinese zodiac at the Lycos Chinese New Year site.
• What will the Year of the Horse bring? Read this article from The Malaysia Star, "The Year of the Snake slithers away as the Horse gallops in across Greater China." You can also read a profile from Chinatown Online.

Origins of the Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year formally marks the beginning of Spring, and, therefore, it is also known as the Spring Festival. Its origins are too old to be traced, but what is accepted is that the word Nian (Chinese word for "year") was originally the name of a monster beast that terrorized villagers the night before the beginning of the New Year. One legend has it that the beast, Nian, had a very big mouth that was capable of eating several people alive with just one bite.

One day, an old man thought up a plan to approach this beast Nian. He walked up to Nian meekly and pretended to reason, "The whole world knows your fearless might and your terrible anger. Still, your mercy and compassion will be more celebrated if only you swallow the other animals around the mountainside, instead of us humans. After all, we are weak and too unworthy for a magnificent being like yourself to eat!" Indeed, Nian was convinced to stop terrorizing humans and made a diet of wolves, bears, and vultures instead.

• If you have Chinese friends, you can send a Chinese papercut card via e-mail to wish them Happy New Year!