Another year of good fortune is beginning in China.

Fireworks pop high in the sky, dragon's dance in the streets, and the cities close down to celebrate Chinese New Year and Chinese culture.

It's the most important time of the year, rules and traditions and customs passed down through the ages.

Share some our Spring Festival customs:

1. ''The Spring Couplet", also called "couplet" and "a pair of antithetical phrases", is a special form of literature in China. 

The Spring Couplet is composed of two antithetical sentences on both sides of the door and a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription, usually an auspicious phrase, above the gate. 

The sentence pasting on the right side of the door is called the first line of the couplet and the one on the left the second line. 

On the eve of the Spring Festival, every household will paste on doors a spring couplet written on red paper to give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival. 

In the past, the Chinese usually wrote their own spring couplet with a brush or asked others to do for them, while nowadays, it is common for people to buy the printed spring couplet in the market.

2. Set off firecrackers:

The firecracker is a unique product in China . 

In ancient China , the sound of burning bamboo tubes was used to scare away wild animals and evil spirits . 

With the invention of the gunpowder , firecracker is also called “鞭炮biān pào” (“炮” Chinese means gun) and used to foster a joyful atmosphere . 

The first thing every Chinese household does is to set off firecrackers and fireworks , which are meant to bid farewell to the old year and us hen the new . 

In the past few years , such an activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities including Beijing due to fire and personal casualty caused by burning fire crackers. 

However, some Chinese thought that a Spring Festival without firecrackers was not lively enough and they burned firecrackers by stealth . 

So in recent years , the ban was canceled again. This shows that burning firecrackers is a very important activity during the Spring Festival.

3. Sweeping the dust:

“Dust” is homophonic with “chen" (尘) in Chinese , which means old and past. 

In this way, “sweeping the dust” before the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. 

This custom shows a good wish of putting away old things to welcome a new life . 

In a word , just before the Spring Festival comes , 

every household will give a thorough cleaning to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new.

Let's talk about more interesting customs of our Spring Festival next time.