The Spring Festival is the most important festival in China. Days before the Spring Festival Chinese usually have lots things to plan. People usually decorate the doors and windows with Spring Festival couplets, because red means good luck. People usually clean house too, because they want to sweep away bad luck. And special purchases for the Spring Festival, offer sacrifices to people's ancestors,

    A series of colorful celebration activities begin on the first day of the first lunar month. No matter in the city or in the countryside, all the people will do one thing that is to extend Spring Festival greetings. This activity begins at first between family members. Normally we will extend our Spring Festival greetings to our elders, such as our grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts.

Relatives will drop each other a visit during the Spring Festival to give their best wishes. To drop a Spring Festival visit is to give your new year greetings when you are out. Have a luck talk. Happy new year! May you come into a good fortune! A luck talk can bring luck to people in the new year.

Health is very important. So new greetings normally have "Good health!"

Hope everything goes your way. May you succeed in whatever you try.

Have a successful career!

    The traditional way of extending Spring Festival greetings includes to drop a visit or to send new year cards. In recent years, people began to use telephone, email and sms to extend their Spring Festival wishes.

    Although people have different ways of extending the Spring Festival wishes now, for children, one thing still remains unchanged. This is, when they pay a Spring Festival visit to their elders, elders will give them Yasuiqian,. Since Yasuiqian is money put into a small red paper envelope, people also call it "red bag ".Normally, our elders give us children new year money. We kowtow to them and give them our best wishes. They will give us new year money. No matter how big or small the amount is, it has a symbolic meaning.

    During the Spring Festival, one must be extremely careful in his or her acts and words. Because Chinese people want to have a nice start at the beginning of each year. Therefore there are many taboos during the Spring Festival. Some words should not be spoken and some things should not be done. There are many taboos during the Spring Festival. One should not sweep on the first day of the first lunar month. If you sweep on that day, you should sweep from outdoors to indoors, but not from indoors to outdoors. If a child breaks something on that day, you should not blame him or her. You should say "To break is great for next year!" Break in Chinese has a homonym which means Year. If a child says something bad, it is "Children's words are no taboos."

    On New Year's Eve, family always have a big dinner. Everybody are watch TV and talk. In the midnight, there usually fair works.
The Spring Festival finishes at the Lantern Festival after two weeks. People usually eat a kind of rice dumpling called yuanxiao. It can take people good luck all the year round.