Two features distinguish it from the other festival .One is seeing off the old year and ringing in the new .The other is family reunion .Sons and daughters working away from home come back to join their parents .
Two weeks before the festival the whole country is permeated with a holiday atmosphere .Shops and Streets are beautifully decorated and every household is busy shopping ,preparing for the festival . In the past ,all families would make a thorough house-cleaning, settling accounts and pictures on the doors on the Lunar New Year's Eve, the last day of the twelfth moon in the Chinese lunar calendar, each family dinner they sit together before the TV to watch the New Year's program .About ten minutes before the ringing of the New Year's bell ,people let out fireworks and firecrackers t o welcome back the kitchen god from heaven ,who is in charge of the fortune and misfortune of the household he dwells.
On the first three days of the festival people visit their best friends and close relatives .exchanging greetings and presents, which id known as "New Year's performances of dragon dance and lion dance and recreational parades in the streets by some recreational troupes.
Some of the customs based on superstitions are quite interesting .For example, on New Year's Day .people will not sweep the floor, do washing or dump their garbage out of the house, lest these would do away with their fortune .On the Lunar New Year's Eve, people like to stick the Chinese character "happiness" upside down on doors or walls, because "upside down" in Chinese is a homophone of "coming" or "arriving". The custom of pasting couplets on doors has a long and interesting history. In ancient times, people hung short pieces of peach trees branched on doors or at front gates for purpose of driving away evil things. Later they became peach—wood boards with some Chinese characters written on them. With the invention of paper, these peach-wood tablets were replaces by long scripts of red paper, on each of which was written a verse line to welcome the new year or to express wishes for happiness and good fortune. During the long process of history, spring couplets have become a special form of literature with their own characteristics.
On the evening of the 15tth day of January, lunar calendar, there is a lantern show in the streets or parks of the city. Lanterns in all shapes, colors and sizes make the place a marvelous sight. With the lantern show over , the spring Festival comes to an end and people will go back to their work and farmers will be busy with their spring ploughing and sowing.
