Amy is an international student currently studying at Kingston University in London. Here she describes how Chinese New Year is celebrated in her home country of Taiwan.
The most important holiday in Taiwan is the Lunar New Year. It normally comes around one month after the Western New Year, and there are similarities between Christmas and Chinese New Year. On this special holiday, families get together for the festivities. Whilst visiting relatives and friends, we greet them with New Year sayings, wishing them good luck, good health, great fortune and so on. Adults give children little red envelopes with money inside them instead of gifts.
At New Year's time, most families paste signs on and around the front doors of their homes. These signs consist of black or gold Chinese characters written on squares or strips of red paper, because red is a happy colour which brings good luck. You always see red as the main decorative colour during this holiday.
