Chinese Lunar New Year is the most important festival thorough the year. It is the start of the lunar calendar which is usually in late January or early February, but the exact date would change from year to year depending on the Lunar Calendar.

On 28th of the last lunar month, Chinese people would clean their houses thoroughly. We called it “Daai Sou Cheui”, a Big Sweep which resembles sweeping away all the misfortunes of last year and welcoming all the luck next year.

On the Eve of the Chinese New Year, all family members would gather to have Reunion dinner with big banquet. It is similar to the Thanksgiving of the Americans. Some employers would also hold a reunion dinner on some day in the last lunar month to show their cares to the employees.  Flowers especially for New Year would be sold, for instance, peach, kumquats, narcissus etc.

During the festival, Chinese people would wear new clothes, symbolizing a new start. Fai Cheun with different phrases of blessings would be hung at home. People would greet each other with blessing. ‘Kung Her Faat Choy’ is the most common one, which wish the others for fortune.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is on the 15th of the 8th Lunar month, usually in September. The moon on that day is the biggest and brightest. Therefore, viewing the moon is one of the activities in the festival.

Moon cakes would be given to relatives and friends for good wishes. Traditional moon cakes are made of paste of ground sesame or lotus seeds with a salted duck egg yolk in the middle. However, there are many new kinds of moon cakes like the iced ones or those made of ice-cream.

Colorful paper lanterns are another characteristic of the Mid-Autumn Festival. They may be of any shapes like fishes, starfruits, rabbits etc. They are lit by putting candles inside. Today plastic lanterns are also very popular and they are lit by a small light bulb inside.

The Dragon Boat Festival is on the 5th of 5th Lunar month in June. Two main characteristics of the festival are rice dumplings and dragon boat races.

Rice dumplings are made of glutinous rice with ingredients, like beans, egg yolks, dried shrimps etc, wrapped in bamboo leaves or lotus leaves.

Dragon Boat Races are held in different places in Hong Kong on that day. The largest one is the International Dragon Boat Race in which teams from many other countries would compete with local ones. The furious competition is accompanied by gongs or drums which make the event even more exciting.