Backgrounder: Chinese Lunar New Year (3)

TABOOS

There is a long list of things that the Chinese will avoid during the Spring Festival, though the specific items vary from one region to another.

Chinese households carry out a full clean before New Year's Eve, partially to usher in a "clean" new year. But also because doing it after the start of the new year is believed to clear the good luck.

Quarrels, crying and cursing are forbidden, as people fear that bad behavior on New Year's Eve will continue throughout the coming year.

Many superstitious northern Chinese also believe that if a person has a haircut during the first month of the lunar year, his maternal uncle will die.

As a result, some barbershops are open nearly 18 hours a day for the pre-holiday rush for haircuts, which lasts for at least two weeks before New Year's Eve.

While women like to spruce up for the holiday, men with short hair even like to get an extra haircut before the new year, in case their hair is too long in one month before their next haircut, which is often scheduled for the second day of the second lunar month.

The tradition can be traced back to an ancient story about a barber who could not afford a decent new year gift for his maternal uncle, choosing instead to give his uncle a haircut that made him look many years younger. After his uncle passed away, the barber missed him very much, crying with the coming of each new year. The Chinese phrase for "missing one's maternal uncle" ("si jiu") is very close in pronunciation to the phrase for "death of one's maternal uncle."

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