CELEBRATING CHINESE NEW YEAR EVE

    Chinese New Year which also known as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year  as it’s been called since the twentieth century, begins with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon after 15 days. The fifteenth  day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at the evening with lantern shows and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

CELEBRATING  CHINESE  NEW  YEAR  EVE 

   Chinese New Year's Eve  are celebrated as a family undertaking, a period of gathering and thanksgiving. It was a time to honor household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors. The festival was customarily highlighted with a religious ceremony given to pay tribute to Heaven and Earth, the  divine forces  of the household and the family progenitors.

  The sacrifice to the ancestors is the most vital of all the rituals. Uniting the living members together with those who had passed away. Relatives who had passed away are remembered with great respect on the grounds that they were in charge of establishing the frameworks for the fortune and glory of the family.The vicinity of the ancestors is acknowledged during New Year's Eve with a dinner arranged for them at the family dinner table. The living members, together with the spirits of the ancestors, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great united community. This communal festival was known as "surrounding the stove" or weilu. It symbolizes family solidarity  and honors the past and present generations.
 
   Significantly, younger generations of Chinese now observe the occasion  in a very different way from their ancestors. For some young people, the occasion  has evolved from an opportunity to renew family ties to a chance for unwinding and relaxation from work.
Here are some traditional nice ways to celebrate Chinese New Year eve:

   Prepare your Lucky Red Envelopes called “Lai See”, “Hong Bao” or “Ang Pow”. These are lucky money packets filled with Feng Shui coins, chocolate coins, shiny gold coins or  crisp new uncirculated bills.  The number 8 is considered lucky (for its homophone for "wealth"), and 8 is commonly found in the red envelopes. These are considered incredibly lucky to give. The more you give out, the more luck coming back to you! You can send them to your Feng Shui consultants, Dharma Teachers and Helpful clients.

   Make your “Money Tree.” As per some Chinese legend there is a tree that has branches of coins and  gold.That legend later on known as  the money tree. When you shake the money tree, the gold falls  like downpour from heaven. Customarily, one would utilize a kumquat (this is the thing that entrepreneurs ought to use), a thick pine, cypress tree or lucky bamboo plant that is nestled inside a porcelain pot loaded with five grains, including rice. Pine nuts  and red melon seeds are sprinkled above the rice and grains. On the off chance that you don't have a tree, you could likewise use gold branches and secured with the grains in an expansive vase. Then you get to enliven! Begin with shining pixie lights or strings of electric red lamps. At that point include: 
.Feng Shui Coins hung by red string or strip as though dribbling off the tree. 
.Lucky Red Envelopes with pictures of gold ingots, Wealth God, and coins and loaded with genuine cash [hung by red string through a hole punch at top of envelope]. 
.Red lamps. 
.Gold ingots. 
.Gold and silver coin wreaths made of paper. 
.Images of long life (paper cranes and deer). 
.Top with Liu Hai, a Taoist God of Wealth or the character for Happiness. When you have your tree, you can do this capable visualization. Envision your own Money Tree in your garden and at whatever point you need money, you should do nothing more than shake the tree and cash notes will fall off, making a windfall of good fortune and success.

“Money Tree”

   Make your “Wishing Tree.”In spite of the fact that Taoist and Buddhist in its origins, this is an exceptionally prevalent custom for everybody to do amid the Chinese New Year as well as other celebrations. Generally, they are set outside (or, on the off chance that it needs to be inside, it should be close to a window) so the wind can convey your wishes to the Heaven Realm. In the event that you don't have a tree to use, you could simply take vast branches and splash paint them gold and place these in a huge vase stabilized with stones at the base. If you want you could beautified first your tree with pixie lights or candle lamps. At this point, you could now write your wishes.
   1. Compose your wishes for the coming New Year on red and gold strips and afterward attach them to the branches of your Wishing Tree. This is very much alike to a Tibetan prayer banner, where your wish ripples in the wind. 
   2. Compose your wishes on red lace looped within an enormous brilliant emblem and afterward throw it up onto a tree branch attempting to get it snag and remain there. 
   3. Compose your name, birth date and wish on splendid red and yellow joss papers (or red paper or brilliant paper inside a red envelope) attached to an orange. Throw up onto the tree and attempt to snag it on a branch so that your wish ascends to Heaven. In the event that the wish stays in the tree, wish will be granted! 

   4. Toss coins at red cards with recorded  gold calligraphied blessings. If you get hit the card with a coin inside it, you get the wish! The coins are then be  given traditionally to charity. 
   5. You could likewise make a Tibetan rendition, where you cover a tree with jeweled pendants, winged animals,  gem circles, lotus flowers, fruits and silk scarves. 

“Wishing Tree”

   Paying tribute to the Deities and Ancestors at the family altar. At around 3:00pm now is the right time to say farewell to the current year by paying tribute to the Deities and Ancestors at the family altar. Light candles,burn heaven money and 3 sticks of incense.Place offerring at the altar such as foods, fruits and drinks. The family supplicates together. At the point when the incense has torched half way, the gods are considered to have had their meal, now you can get and eat the rest. 

  Turn each light on in the house throughout the night to drive off any misfortunate chi of  sprits and ghosts. 

  Have a Reunion Dinner with the entire family and offer a huge banquet. A vacant seat and spot setting speaks to somebody not there. Relatives ought to be decently dressed and the ladies ought to wear their gems to signify a continuity of good luck. Nobody ought to look exhausted,unhappy or miserable. There ought to be an abundance of food on the table Serve these typical food such as:
   (a) Lettuce Rolls (Cantonese word for lettuce sounds like "climbing fortune");dumplings and spring moves (their shape is like ingots or gold bars);leafy mustard greens for long life; tangerines (sounds like "luck");oranges (sounds like "riches"); pomelos (the Chinese word for pomelo sounds like the saying for "to have"); dark seaweeds to expand riches; eggdishes for rebirth; candy and sweet sustenances for a year loaded with sweetness; long, uncut noodles for life span. 
   (b) The chinese word for fish, "Yu," means like the words both for abundance and wish. Subsequently, on New Year's Eve it is standard to serve a fish toward the end of the night feast, symbolizing a wish for abundance in the impending year. For included  symbolism, the fish is served in whole, with head and tail joined, symbolizing a great start and good ending for the impending year. 
   (c) Sticky Rice Cake symbolizes a sweet and rich life, while the layers symbolize rising abundance for the impending year. And the round shape means family get-together. 

   Open the front door (generally, throughout the night!) to let the old year out. 

   Presently now is the ideal time to keep vigil for the New Year! The sound of sleepiness in Chinese is similar to “trouble”. Not going to sleep means no inconvenience or trouble for the coming year! 
  .Some will stay up viewing Chinese New Year TV specials or playing mah-jong till midnight. 
  .Exchanging of red envelopes with relatives. 
  .Children stay up throughout the night as a belief that their parents would have a longer life to live.
  .Youngsters will put all Red Envelopes under the cushion when sleeping. They said youngsters can rest soundly without awful dream and get to be wealthier one year from now. 
  .The children are promised the arrival of the  of the Wealth God, Tsai Shen Yeh, while they sleep parents slip a red envelope with  cash money under their cushion implying his visit.
  .Numerous will decide to assemble outside the temple after reunion dinner, as everybody needs to be the first individual of the year to be honored by the God in the incense stick race. On the first second of the hour, as temple's main gate open everybody readily rush to embed the incense stick into the incense holder. The victor gets an big red envelope and will be
exceptionally fortunate in the coming year. 

    At the stroke of midnight set off firecrackers together with drums, cymbals and  gongs to start off New Year with a "blast" and drive out the old chi of a year ago and any negative spirits. Light red candles and incense. The young ones ought   to bow and pay regards to their elderly folks.  Open all entryways and windows to permit the old year to leave and get in the good luck of the New Year! Go to the temple praying to bless the entire family for the next prosperous New Year.  MAY ALL YOUR WISHES COME TRUE !