New year cards are sent between family and friends reunion dinner for the family is held on the eve of the new year. Bad language and unpleasant topics are discouraged. There are lion dances and small fire works. Red paper showing Chinese characters of prosperity and wealth are pasted either in front or inside the house. Ang-Pow or red packet containing money is given out to children and elderly.
Open house is practiced for visiting relatives and friends with various ethnic races.
The new year is lasted for fifteen days which the concentration is on the first three days. The celebration ends with the Chap Goh Mei on the fifteenth day. The most vibrant and colourful festival in the Chinese calendar is the Lunar New Year, when the whole of Chinatown is ablaze with lights from ceremonial red lanterns, and the streets are bedecked with traditional decorations mainly in red, the colour of good luck. The celebration starts with family reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, followed by open-house over the next few days. It is a time for forgiveness and for settling old debts.