Chinese New Year, festival based on the lunar calendar and falling between January 21 and February 19. It is the most important event in the Chinese year and festivities traditionally last for two weeks. During this period, towns and villages are decorated with coloured lanterns, floral displays, and brightly coloured banners emblazoned with New Year greetings. In Chinese communities in Britain, Hong Kong S. A. R., and elsewhere in the world outside mainland China, this is usually the Cantonese greeting Kung hay fat choy, meaning “May you prosper”. In the home, preparations begin in the week before New Year when, to honour the kitchen god, the house is thoroughly cleaned and decorated with flowers, food is prepared, debts are paid off, and on New Year's Eve fireworks are let off. In the New Year people put on new clothes to symbolize the discarding of the old year and its misfortunes and take gifts to friends and relatives. These usually include foods such as special rice flour cakes and kumquats that signify prosperity. Other familiar gifts believed to bring good fortune are the small red paper packets containing money that married couples give to unmarried relatives, friends, and children.
Among the most spectacular communal events are the dragon and lion dances which are performed to the sound of gongs and drums as they parade through the streets and reach up to take red money packets and fruit and vegetables which are hung from shops in the hope of good fortune. The celebrations end with the Lantern Festival when, traditionally, children parade through the streets with lighted lanterns.
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