As Lunar New Year 2026 approaches, many Hong Kong residents are meticulously planning their celebrations, mindful that traditional customs and taboos, spanning from Nian San (the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month) to the Lantern Festival, are crucial for ushering in prosperity, career advancement, and good fortune for the coming year. These deeply rooted practices, especially those concerning New Year’s Eve (Lunar 30th) dinner and the first day of the New Year (Dai Cho Yat), act as a spiritual roadmap, guiding families toward abundant fortune while warding off potential misfortune, highlighting the enduring cultural emphasis on beginning the year with positive symbolism.
The traditional Spring Festival calendar is packed with specific rituals, with the Eve and the first day commanding the most attention. The collective goal is to ensure that every action and consumable item carries Hao Yi Tou—a lucky connotation—setting a prosperous tone for the subsequent 12 months.
Culinary Codes for New Year’s Eve Dinner
The New Year’s Eve reunion dinner (Tuen Nin Fan) is paramount, focusing heavily on symbolic foods that promise abundance and continuity. Families traditionally gather to consume dishes with felicitous names and shapes, ensuring a healthy progression of luck into the new year.
Key customs observed during the Tuen Nin Fan include:
- Leaving Leftovers: It is imperative to leave some food, especially fish, uneaten. This practice symbolizes Nin Nin Yao Yu (year after year having an excess), ensuring prosperity is retained and carried forward into the new cycle.
- Symbolic Foods: Dishes that represent growth and wealth are prioritized. Fish (yu/餘, symbolizing excess) must be placed on the table, often served with the head and tail intact to represent completeness and continuity. Dumplings (Jiaozi), shaped like ancient gold ingots, signify wealth accumulation, while finding a hidden coin traditionally promises extreme luck. Rice Cake (Nin Gaao) is consumed to symbolize achieving new heights (Buu Buu Go Sheng).
- Vegetable Virtues: Long, leafy greens like Mustard Greens (Gai Choi) are eaten whole, not cut, to represent longevity and a smooth transition from hardship to sweetness (Ku Jin Gam Lai). Chinese Chives (Gau Choi) are included to invoke the blessing of long life and duration (Cheung Cheung Gau Gau).
- Pre-emptive Preparation: Families must ensure that all household containers, particularly rice bins (symbolizing the wealth reserve), are completely full before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. A bare rice bin is considered a potent harbinger of poverty. Likewise, spilling or pouring oil, which is also associated with financial loss, is strictly forbidden.
Understanding Ten Key Taboos on Lunar New Year’s Day
The inaugural day of the New Year is considered the foundation of the calendar year, demanding heightened observance of spiritual purity and positive deeds. Observing these ten top precautions helps safeguard the family’s luck and future endeavors:
- Strictly Observe Ancestral Worship: The first day begins with honoring ancestors, offering red dates, sweets, and fruit, reinforcing familial bonds and seeking blessings for the lineage.
- Embrace a Vegetarian Diet: Traditionally, consuming meat or performing any form of slaughter is avoided to show respect for life, promoting compassion and spiritual cleansing for the year ahead.
- Avoid Thin Porridge: Eating rice porridge or watery rice on the first morning is discouraged, as it historically signifies a poor, starving existence.
- No Savory Glutinous Rice Balls: Savory Tong Yuen, sometimes known as “beggar’s rice,” should be avoided, especially by business owners, as consumption on this day is believed to invite hardship and obstruction in future dealings.
- Do Not Cook: Meals should be prepared ahead of time, utilizing leftovers from New Year’s Eve. Igniting the stove on the first day is believed to burn away prosperity.
- Avoid Medications: Unless absolutely necessary due to acute illness, remedies and tonic supplements should be avoided to prevent symbolizing a year characterized by sickness.
- Dispense with the Nap: Taking a midday nap (Ng Seui) is discouraged. An ancient idiom warns against daytime slumber on this day, as it suggests laziness, which may negatively impact one’s career prospects and industriousness in the new year.
- Do Not Discard Rice Cakes: Even if moldy, leftover Nin Gaao must not be thrown out. The “mold” sound (Faat) is serendipitous, similar to the word for “prosper.”
- Keep Dustpans Covered: Handling or overturning a dustpan is analogous to the “water” element of wealth being swept out, suggesting a loss of fortune.
- Ensure Abundant Containers: All containers for staples like salt, sugar, and, crucially, rice, must be full to reflect and attract forthcoming opulence.
The Full Lunar Calendar: From Cleaning to Celebration
The entire New Year period, culminating in Yuen Siu (Lantern Festival, Day 15), is structured around ensuring maximum auspiciousness. Key dates include: Nian Ba (Day 28 of the 12th Month), when families perform a thorough house cleaning (Sai Laat Tat) to expel old, stale energy and prepare for wealth entry. Cho Er (Day 2) involves the married daughter’s return home (Wui Mun Yat), and Cho Sam (Day 3), known as Chi Kou (Red Mouth), cautions against visiting, as it’s considered an unlucky day for arguments, suggesting a visit to the temple instead.
These detailed observances underscore the enduring cultural significance of the Lunar New Year, positioning it not merely as a holiday but as a critical annual reset, where adhering to tradition is actively seen as paving the way for personal and financial success.