Everyone wears new clothes, preferably red as it is a color of good luck and great joy. Lion dancers, led by a drummer, come to homes and businesses that put out heads of lettuce hanging from a long rope to entice the lion to their houses. Incense and candles are lit to pay homage to ancestors. Sprays of an evergreen plant are displayed, signifying long life, and golden oranges are stacked on plates in a pyramid to ask for prosperity for the coming year. On the 15th day of the New Year, the celebration ends with a lantern and dragon parade.
Lanterns help people find the heavenly spirits who are believed to be flying around the full moon.
The Lantern Festival also was said to usher in light and warmth after the cold winter and was a prayer for plentiful spring rains for the farmers. Some households lit as many lanterns as family members, and if they wanted more children, they displayed many more lanterns. A block-long dragon, a mythical creature symbolic of vigor and fertility, is manned by as many as 200 men who swirl in its body around to scare any remaining evil spirits. The Chinese New Year celebration ends after about three weeks of festivities, food and family togetherness. All rights reserved.