As one of the largest celebrations for Chinese worldwide, the Chinese New Year or the Lunar New Year represents one of the many opportunities to mark a new year. It is a time to look back on the past year, honour traditions and culture, and look forward to the future.
All of these activities are spent together with family members.
While associated with large extravagant fireworks, firecrackers, and lion dance; the Chinese New Year celebration is also an annual celebration that can help to bring family members together through reunion dinners to Bai Nian, the latter being the social gatherings and visits that many would associate Chinese New Year with.
According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2025 is the Year of the Snake. Each of the 15 days in which the Chinese New Year is celebrated each year has its festivities associated with it, even in Brunei Darussalam, which even starts before the celebrations.
PRECEDING DAYS BEFORE CHINESE NEW YEAR
Most of the housekeeping activities are conducted in the days leading up to the Chinese New Year celebrations. Families thoroughly clean their houses to sweep away any ill fortune and make way for the incoming good luck for the upcoming year.
In addition, families also decorate the doors and household with various paper cuts and couplets, as well as lanterns; all of which are in the colour red, which symbolises good luck and prosperity and has been thought to ward off evil spirits.
The paper cuts and couplets are usually composed of poems that bring the household and its family good fortune as well as safe travels, especially when visiting other family members during the auspicious occasion.
Another iconic decoration usually found among the decorations for Chinese New Year is the Chinese character Fu, meaning blessing or happiness, which is usually printed on a red diamond-shaped paper cut.
While some might hang the Chinese Character Fu upside down, which signifies the pouring of blessing or happiness; others will see it as pouring the blessing and happiness away, and as such, the orientation in which it is hung can vary due to this.
ON CHINESE NEW YEAR’S EVE
On the eve of the celebrations, all the preparations come together, as families come together for a family reunion and dinner to spend time together as they celebrate the New Year together. This will then culminate in the extravagant display of fireworks and firecrackers. Contrary to popular belief, these deafening fireworks and firecrackers are not just for show. They stem from tradition, where to ward off evil spirits, gunpowder was used in bamboo stems to create small explosions, with the ensuing sound having been believed to ward off evil spirits.
Since then, the tradition has shifted to the use of firecrackers, which are the now iconic long string of red-coloured firecrackers. Along with the fireworks, they not only help to ward off evil spirits but have also been an integral aspect of the celebration, signifying the joyful time of the New Year.
ON CHINESE NEW YEAR
A tradition on the first day of Chinese New Year is the house gatherings for close and immediate families, where family members wear new clothes and shoes on New Year’s Day to signify a fresh new beginning to the New Year.
This would also be accompanied by the handing of Red Envelopes or Angpao from parents to their children, which almost always contains money of varying amounts; that also stems from traditions and legend that wrapping money in red paper can help protect their children.
On a side noted, stemming from traditional beliefs, especially during the celebration, are the taboos on New Year’s Day; with some of the common ones being sweeping the floor being forbidden as it can mean sweeping out the good luck that was brought in, to avoid breaking things, in particular porcelain, as it is seen as an ill omen.
From the second day of the celebration to the end, families visit close friends and relatives and welcome friends and close relatives to partake in gatherings.
All the while, they exchange their New Year greetings, hand Angpao, and spend time together celebrating the New Year.
In addition, many of these gatherings are also accompanied by Lion Dance with the belief similar to the firecrackers where the drumming and deafening sounds together with the face of the lion dancing aggressively can ward off evil spirits.
Another key moment during the celebration is on the seventh day, which is called Renri.
According to Chinese traditions and legends, this is an occasion to celebrate the birth of mankind.
As such, one of the signature dishes is the Yee Sang or Prosperity Toss, which serves to bring in good fortune, with the height of the toss reflecting the height of fortunes.
Meanwhile, during the celebrations, households would also conduct various prayers and worship to their deities. One is held on the ninth day as part of the Bai Tian Gong, though this one is sparsely practised in Brunei.
This period of celebrations usually lasts around one week, as people start to shift back to their daily commute and work. However, the Chinese New Year celebrations will continue to be observed until the 15th day, which is referred to as the Lantern Festival, Yuan Xiao Jie, or more colloquially known as Chap Goh Meh or Fifteen Nights in Hokkien Dialect.
On this day, the consumption of TangYuan or glutinous rice is not uncommon; the round shape of the ball as well as the bowls that it is normally served on symbolises family togetherness, and that eating them will bring family harmony, happiness, and luck for the new year. – Daniel Lim
