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. All unmarried children are eligible to receive 'Hong Bao' but do make sure that you first greet your elders or married friends. And then, right after the New Year Eve dinner is over and the home is clean, all brooms and kitchen knifes will be kept away.
People also give their doors and windowpanes a new paint, usually in red colour.
Paintings of the same theme are put up in the house on top of the newly mounted wallpaper. In the old days, various kinds of food are tribute at the altar of ancestors. Chinese New Year's Decorations Families decorate their living rooms with vases of pretty blossoms, platters of oranges and tangerines and a candy tray with eight varieties of dried sweet fruit. On walls and doors are poetic couplets, happy wishes written on red paper. These messages sound better than the typical fortune cookie messages.