Year of the Dragon 2024: Blessed revenue, presents and other Lunar New Calendar year customs

Impression by Vectonauta from Freepik

Pleased 12 months of the Dragon! If your age is a numerous of 12 this year, you are a dragon in the Chinese zodiac. The dragon is a potent, energetic and ambitious creature. Certainly, it can be temperamental and self-centred, but it’s also quite likable and common, with enviable management characteristics, intelligence and charisma. Well known dragons incorporate Bruce Lee, Michelle Obama, John Lennon, Martin Luther King Jr., Pele, Adele and Reese Witherspoon.

The Chinese zodiac has twelve animals, which get turns exerting affect around each and every yr, always in the exact get. The dragon, which retains fifth put in the cycle, is the only fictitious animal—the some others, in get, are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, snake, horse, sheep, dollars, rooster, puppy and pig. (In Vietnam, people today rejoice the cat as a substitute of the rabbit, and the buffalo rather of the ox.)

In 2024, Chinese New Year—celebrated far more broadly throughout East Asian and Southeast Asian communities as Lunar New Year—falls on Saturday, Feb. ten, kicking off two months of relatives gatherings, elaborate feasts, and the providing and receiving of “lucky money” in minor pink envelopes.

When is fortunate income offered?

Lucky money envelopes—called lai see in Cantonese and hong bao in Mandarin—are provided to little ones and, in some areas, seniors in the very first two weeks of the Lunar New Yr, up until finally the initial comprehensive moon, a working day termed the Spring Competition or Chinese Lantern Festival (Feb. 24).

Typically, when you get married, it is your change to hand out envelopes, and you are going to acquire fewer by yourself. There are no tough and quickly regulations, though—unmarried grown ups could also give and get lai see to young family and friends’ young children, for example. Individuals typically give lucky revenue to their services suppliers. My dad and mom, for example, deliver red envelopes for the servers at their regular dim sum location.

How considerably revenue are we talking about?

Prior to I bought married, I obtained $5 or $10 from each and every relative and $20 from each parent for Chinese New 12 months. Typically, the closer your romance is to the receiver, the extra lucky income you give. The quantity is considerably less essential than the spirit in which the present is given—in Chinese tradition, the color purple symbolizes contentment and superior luck.

Lucky revenue is also presented on distinctive occasions like birthdays, weddings, graduations and the start of a infant. And the envelopes are not usually red—you can obtain all the things from cartoony rainbow variations to fashionable gold kinds. Canada’s massive banks often give out packs of branded envelopes when customers decide up crisp new bills for Lunar New Yr (offering previous, wrinkly cash is thought of inadequate etiquette). And in Asia, you can ship electronic “red packets” through WeChat, AliPay, Tencent QQ and other money platforms.

What else to reward for Chinese New Yr?

When browsing kinfolk, a lot of Chinese households deliver classic new year’s sweets and treats. Oranges, clementines, pomelos and kumquats are also preferred gifts—they symbolize abundance, contentment and great fortune.

Lunar New Year has turn out to be highly commercialized, even in international locations outside the house of Asia. My inbox is crammed with emails from life-style and luxurious brand names endorsing 12 months of the Dragon merchandise—everything from handbags and jewellery to cosmetic kits and Lego sets, and everybody from Walmart to Swarovski is in on the action. Handle on your own or a mate if you like, but really don’t experience pressured to purchase everything. In my family’s expertise, new year’s presents aren’t portion of the tradition.

More Lunar New Yr traditions

The legitimate focus of the new yr is investing time with loved ones.

To get prepared for New Year’s Working day, Chinese households may clean up their households, acquire new outfits, pay off debts and place up shiny red decorations. On New Year’s Eve (Feb. nine), quite a few clans get for a feast—this is the large party, like Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner rolled into one particular. The food incorporates dishes considered to be auspicious, like long noodles (for a extended existence) and a whole fish (for abundance). Involving New Year’s Day and the Spring Festival, people will check out relatives, worship ancestors, go to new year’s festivities and far more. Some of us also notice new year’s taboos and superstitions.

And what about predictions for the calendar year?

The Calendar year of the Dragon—specifically the Wood Dragon, this time around—will convey prospects, development, difficulties and adjust, in accordance to my short scan of the interwebs. If you’re a dragon, be expecting creativeness and prosperity, but continue to be humble and pay out awareness to your associations. Examine extra about the Yr of the Dragon and uncover your 2024 horoscope at ChineseNewYear.net.

Examine more about reward-providing:

• Fiscal items: What you will need to know just before providing cash or investments
• Can we present money or house to our kids tax-free?
• The tax implications of gifting adult small children dollars and far more
• The very best charities in Canada to donate to for the most charitable affect