On the first day of Lunar Calendar, usually in late January or early February, each family of the whole nation will gather together to celebrate Spring Festival, the most important traditional festival of China. It symbolizes the arrival of New Year and new life.

Preparation:
During the ten days before the festival, people have a lot of things to prepare. They are busy in cleaning houses thoroughly and purchasing festival goods, mainly including meat, candies, wine, and nuts as well as New Year present.

After all the preparation, people will put up New Year couplets on the door. Golden words representing good wishes for the New Year are written on three pieces of red paper. One is above the top of the door, and the other two are on both side. They also decorate their houses with red paper-cut window decorations and red lanterns. In China, "red" indicates good luck and prosperity.

New Year's Eve
The day before festival is called New Year's Eve. The whole family dines around the table, chatting about the past one year and making determinations of the coming year. Dumpling (Jiaozi), which symbolizes reunion and harmony, and New Year cake (Niangao), which is made of glutinous flour, are the favorite food on this day. On the Eve, people do not sleep early as usual.

Instead, they watch live Spring Festival Gala on TV until the midnight when the New Year comes. Then many households set off fireworks almost simultaneously creating thunderous roaring sound.

New Year Arrives
On the first day of New Year, people get up early and have reunion dinner with family members, saying "Happy New Year!" to elder relatives. Children can not only wear new clothes but also get package money (money in red package) from elder relatives as good wishes. In downtown area, there are also celebrative performances, such as waist drum displays, Yangge dancing and lion and dragon dancing. On the following days, people will visit their friends and send best wishes with each other.