【正文】 .)will e, and this is the arrival of New Year(Yuandan).At this moment, people begin the celebration with and sweet foods will then be placed are the altar for offerings, and incense be burned to wele the the ancient times, it was believed that haishi connected the two years and thus was called the same night, some families will follow the instruction in Tongshu and place preparing altar in the direction of the “fortune deity” during the “fortune time” to receive the the direction of the “fortune deity” is at the “ill position”, people will choose to receive “happy deity” or “noble deity” is an apparent difference in the custom of food taking on Yuandan between the Chinese in the northern and southern northern Chinese has the habit of taking jiao zi(dumpling made of flour with vegetable and meat wrapped inside).Some people may put a sweet or a coin inside jiao zi, hoping to have a sweet year after tasting the sweet and a wealthy year after tasting the the other hand, the southern Chinese have the taboo for killing on , they do not take meat in tee morning of Yuandan, so as to avoid bloodshed or mutual order to evade misfortune, they have the first meal of this day without , they take vegetarian food for the sake of is special during the New Year is that parents or elders will distribute red packets(ang pao or ya sui qian)to the in the ancient times were more particular in giving away the red packets: the distribution took place on the eve of New Year so that the kids could suppress the past year and enter the New sui has the meaning of overing the unpredictable the wishes for the healthy psychological growth of the children, ya sui qian symbolises the elders39。 hope to see their children overe all the unpredictable elements brought by the “year”.There is an extraordinary number of taboos on place has its own customs of , we will mention only a few mon taboos in Fujian Province, Guangdong Province and Southeast Asia:In the past, people monly believed that fortune was hidden in the , wsweeping of floor must be done in the direction moving inwards, and there was no clearance of rubbish at on the New Tear day, in order to keep fortune from flowing out, there was no families kept this taboo until the fifth or even the fifteenth anything was broken, the pieces were wrapped up in order not to let the fortune slip away and were disposed only the fifth (in more serious families, the period extends from the 1st to the 15th day)marks the new the hope that New Year brings good beginning, people should utter neither unkind words nor vulgar noises, fighting, quarreling and especially weeping are avoided to deter are even taboos of taking medicine and having sneeze, for it is believed that they can lead to sickness throughout the of the past also concerned the use of knife and the breaking of a thing was broken, the word “break” or any other word importing similar meaning was not , words like “failing to the floor and blossoming like flowers” which delivered pleasant senses were used to suggest good Yuandan, neither lending and nor giving of money to others is done so that there will be no outflowing of money during the is also the saying that if a male sleeps in the afternoon, his career will breakdown, and if a female has an afternoon nap, the kitchen will rite: In the past, there was a rite called he zheng(proper greeting)during New a person paid a New Year visit to friends or relatives, he took along a piece of paper or card on which the name of the host was written wit Chinese receiver of this greeting card would normally paste it on the wall of his main hall to show his respect to and appreciation for the quantity of greeting card received reflected the person39。s public relationship with others, while the names and status of the people who gave the greeting cards indicated the host39。s boundary of social network and standard of , because of easy munication, convenient transportation system and wider social network, when people send their greetings they tend to follow the Western greeting is now done by mail and even by , he zheng is done by simply bringing along red packets and food presents when making a be in line with the custom of to giving away money on the first day, families in some places do not pay New Year call to , the whole family simply goes out to enjoy themselves or staye