新年快乐 (Happy Lunar New Year!)

The older I get, the more superstitious I become. Today is the Chinese New Year, 2009, the year of the ox. If you were born in the year of the ox (which recurs every 12 years), you had better wear red underwear all year to protect yourself from malicious spirits! There are many ways to bless yourself and curse yourself here, here's a few of my favorites:

To ensure good luck for the coming year:

• Opening windows and/or doors is considered to bring in the good luck of the new year.
  
• Switching on the lights for the night is considered good luck to 'scare away' ghosts and spirits of misfortune that may compromise the luck and fortune of the new year.
  
• Eat sweets to ensure a "sweet" year.
  
• It is important to have the house completely clean from top to bottom before New Year's Day for good luck in the coming year. (however, as explained below, cleaning the house after New Year's Day is frowned upon)
  
• Some believe that what happens on the first day of the new year reflects the rest of the year to come. Chinese people will often gamble at the beginning of the year, hoping to get luck and prosperity.
  
• Wearing a new pair of slippers that is bought before the new year, because it means to step on the people who gossip about you.
  
• The night before the new year, bathe yourself in pomelo leaves and some say that you will be healthy for the rest of the new year.

Don't do these or you'll have a crummy year:

• Buying a pair of shoes is considered bad luck amongst some Chinese. The character for "shoe" (鞋) is a homophone for the character 諧/谐, which means "rough" in Cantonese; in Mandarin it is also a homophone for the character for "evil" (邪).
  
• Getting a hair-cut in the first lunar month puts a curse on maternal uncles. Therefore, people get a hair-cut before the New Year's Eve.
  
• Washing your hair is also considered to be washing away one's own luck (although modern hygienic concerns take precedence over this tradition)
  
• Sweeping the floor is usually forbidden on the first day, as it will sweep away the good fortune and luck for the new year.
  
• Saying words like "finished" and "gone" is inauspicious on the New Year, so sometimes people would avoid these words by saying "I have completed eating my meal" rather than say "I have finished my meal."
  
• Talking about death is inappropriate for the first few days of Chinese New Year, as it is considered inauspicious.
  
• Buying books is bad luck because the character for "book" (書/书) is a homonym to the character for "lose" (輸/输).
  
• Avoid clothes in black and white, as black is a symbol of bad luck, and white is a traditional Chinese funeral colour.
  
• Foul language is inappropriate during the Chinese New Year.
  
• Offering anything in fours, as the number four (四), pronounced sì, can sound like "death" (死) in Chinese. See tetraphobia.
• You should never buy a clock for yourself or someone else, because a clock in Chinese tradition means your life is limited or at "the end."

All taken from Wikipedia, of course.

Gotta run make sure my house is clean, check that we all have new slippers, and make sure I have an ample supply of pomelo leaves for my foliage bath! Happy New Year!

And BTW, we're off to Thailand for a week. Report to follow.