Decorations

Each Chinese New Year, families in China decorate their front doors with poetic couplets of calligraphy written with fragrant India ink and expressing the feeling of life's renewal and the return of spring. The color red is considered very popular for the Chinese new year. Red lanterns are displayed on the door frames and houses are decorated with red chinese knots. Some of the flowers used for the floral decorations are Plum blossoms which is believed to symbolize luck, Kumquat - which symbolizes prosperity, Narcissus - for prosperity, Chrysanthemum - for longevity, Bamboo - an all time favorite, and Sunflower which symbolizes for a good year. chinese_new_yearchinese_new_year Children receive monetary gifts in red envelops called Hongbao from their elders.On the red envelopes are gold designs and carved in writings. The writings read lucky remarks. People visit their relatives and friends wearing new clothes.