As a kind of featured food eaten during the Spring Festival, Yuan Xiao has been around for a long time. It was called Tang Yuan at first, and then the name changed to Yuan Xiao because people usually have this food during the Lantern Festival (Yuan Xiao Jie). It is a glutinous rice ball typically filled with sweet red bean paste, sesame paste, or peanut butter, and other kinds of filling. Chinese people believe that the round shape of the balls and the bowls in which they are served symbolize the family coming together. Meanwhile, eating Tang Yuan or Yuan Xiao may bring harmony, happiness, and luck to the family in the new year.

According to folk legends, the God of Wealth is also the god of five directions, which are the east, west, south, north, and the center. People usually believe that after going out of their home, you always move in one of the five directions. You may have a chance to reach the wealth in eitherdirection. Therefore, people will prepare some food, incense sticks, or joss sticks to worship the God of Wealth at the midnight of January forth in the lunar calendar, in order to pray for fortune.

To welcome the God of Wealth, you should prepare the sheep head and fish because the pronunciations of sheep and fish in Chinese are similar to “luck” and “surplus”. At the beginning of January fifth or the end of January forth, you should open the door and windows, burn incense, and set off fireworks, to welcome the God of Wealth.

Setting off firecrackers at the beginning of the year has a profound history spanning back more than 2,000 years. From the old sayings, there is a monster called Nian. Nian will never come out, but when people come to the Spring Festival, it will wake up and hurt people. However, Nian is afraid of noise despite of it’s large body, so people decided to set off firecrackers to scare it away.

As time passed, setting off firecrackers became a kind of tradition and became the yearning for the new year. Afterwards, people not only use firecrackers to scare monsters away, but also prevent bad things, hoping the fortune will come in the next year.

Chinese people have the habit of also celebrating New Year's Eve, which begins with eating New Year's Eve dinner and it must be eaten slowly. The dinner usually begins at dusk and some families will eat until late at night. Overnight staying up for the New Year symbolizes driving away all the pestilence, looking forward to auspicious luck in the new year. This custom gradually became popular later, and to this day, people are still accustomed to the New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.

The custom of observing the ages not only has a regretful feeling of nostalgia for the years that have passed away like water, but also has a beautiful hope for the coming new years.

New Year's lucky money, one of the traditions of the Spring Festival. It is distributed by the old generation to the younger one and usually after dinner. It is said that the lucky money can suppress the evil and bad luck, and the younger people can spend the year in peace with the new year's money. Meanwhile, some parents will put lucky money under the pillow of their children after they fall asleep.

The New Year's lucky money shows the elders' concern and genuine blessings for the younger generation. The original purpose of New Year's lucky money was to suppress evil and drive it away because people think that children are susceptible to ghosts, they use new money to suppress evil.