Few things we don’t do in the beginning of Lunar New Year
JANUARY 27, 2017
Happy Lunar New. The year of Rooster.
Here are few things Vietnamese don’t do on Lunar New Year.
1. Sweep the house or throw out rubbish on New Year's Day, or good luck will be swept away.
2. Use words with negative meanings, like breaking, death, sickness, pain, losing and poverty.
3. Break anything, as it may result in losses or family rifts in the future.
4. Let the rice barrel get empty - it symbolises starvation.
5. Use sharp objects - knives, scissors, needles - for the first three days or so of the new year, as you could cut off good fortune. Don't cut your hair - you don't want to lose the luck of the new year.
6. Lend or borrow money.
7. Buy, give or do four of anything. It's an unlucky number; the word for "four" sounds like the word for "death".
9. Eat congee or rice porridge on New Year's morning (it symbolises poverty) or eat meat, out of respect to the Buddhist gods.
10. Let children cry; the sound is believed to bring bad luck.
11. Take medicine or go to hospital, unless you're seriously ill, or you'll suffer from illness all year.