Year of the Dog

On New Years Eve, people often celebrate with a Reunion Dinner. This dinner is believed to be the most important meal of the year – so important that big families (families of several generations) sit around round tables and enjoy the food and time together.

The colour Red is associated with New Year and is known as the main colour for the festival. Every street, building, and house is decorated with red.  Red lanterns hang in streets; red couplets are pasted on doors and banks and official buildings are decorated with red New Year pictures.

Like any big occasion, Chinese New Year is also celebrated with gifts. The most common gifts are red envelopes. Red envelopes have money in, and are given to children and retired seniors.

Food is also a must at Chinese New Year! Fish is considered a lucky food. It is said that eating fish brings a surplus of money and good luck in the coming year.

Another traditional Chinese New Year food is Chinese dumplings. Chinese dumplings are shaped like silver ingot – a kind of ancient Chinese money. Chinese people believe eating dumplings during the New Year festival will bring more money and wealth for the coming year.

Other New Year food includes spring rolls, glutinous rice cakes and Sweet Rice Balls.

Chinese people are big believers in luck and superstition.  They believe that, what you do in the New Year Festival will then affect your luck in the coming year.  There are a lot of customs associated with the festival and  usually apply up to a month before the festival and continue to the end of the festival (day 15, the Lantern Festival). They are strictly followed in rural areas by the older generations, however younger generations may not follow them.

Some Chinese people believe that they mustn’t do cleaning and wash their hair in the first three days as that will sweep/wash away good luck.

A cry of a child is believed to bring bad luck to the family, so babies and young children are often comforted and kept happy.

It is also believed that asking for a loan is a big “no-no”.

Another interesting thing is the red underwear. You will see red underwear sold at supermarkets and street markets. Red is believed to ward off bad luck and misfortune.

To pray in a temple during the Chinese New Year is said to be blessed, and will lead to a smooth coming year. In Shanghai, China’s biggest city, thousands flock to Longhua Temple, the city’s biggest temple, praying for good fortune.

According to to the Chinese 12-year animal zodiac cycle, 2018 is the year of the Dog.

The Dog is a symbol of loyalty and honesty. People born in the Year of the Dog are honest, friendly, faithful, loyal, smart, straightforward, venerable and have a strong sense of responsibility.

All 12 of the animal zodiac's are available as embroidery images on our builder.

We have a Chinese Zodiac Onesie Collection full of pre-design Chinese New Year Onesies, including an exclusive Dog Zodiac Onesie.

Why not celebrate the year of the Dog in your very own Chinese New Year Dog Onesie?

Complete with a hood, ears, tail, pockets and a golden version of our Dog Zodiac embroidery image.