My friend Sonny has roped me into helping her organise a party to celebrate the Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the dragon, which is the most auspicious animal as per the Chinese zodiac, so I am hoping that by helping Sonny sort out her soirée some of the mythical creature’s good fortune will rub off on me and I will find a man at the event!

Chinese New Year is about spending time with family, gift giving and, the all-important, food-fest, so here is what Sonny and I have planned - first things first…

…The clean-up

Cleaning the house is a very important tradition during the New Year and needs to be done on New Year’s Eve. It symbolises sweeping away any bad luck which might have accumulated over the last year. It’s not often that I will don a pair of rubber gloves, but I know how much these traditions mean to Sonny, so we will dust every corner, clean all the windows and wash all the rooms. Once we’ve done that we can have some fun decorating the house! The doors and windows are covered in red coloured paper-cuts and couplets as red is considered a lucky colour (paper cutting is also an ancient Chinese art form dating back to the Han dynasty). Once the house is looking perfect it’s time to concentrate on…

…The food

We have to think about the menu. Given the importance of food in Chinese culture, it is not surprising that food plays a major role in the celebrations. ‘Lucky’ foods are served through the two-week spring festival. Our menu comprises of chicken, noodles, spring rolls and clams. Serving a whole chicken during the Chinese New Year season symbolises family togetherness. Noodles represent a long life; an old superstition says that it's bad luck to cut them. Both clams and spring rolls symbolise wealth; clams because of their resemblance to bouillon, and spring rolls because their shape is similar to gold bars. Tangerines and oranges will also be passed out as they symbolise wealth and good luck.Thankfully I won’t be doing the cooking, Sonny is in charge of that, I’m just being sent to buy the ingredients!

Gifts

I’ve also been asked to pick up some Hong Baos on my shopping excursion. Sonny explained the significance Hong Baos (literally ‘red envelopes’). These are traditional gifts given to children during the celebrations, the red envelope decorated in gold symbols is stuffed with money (notes not coins) and the amount has to be even (multiples of eights are considered luckiest). If you are attending a Chinese celebration, be sure to take Hong Baos as your gesture will really be appreciated. Children receive Hong Bao until they are married so even students back home for the holiday are considered a child when it comes to the red envelopes!

Celebrations

The last thing on my shopping list is firecrackers. Shooting them off during New Year’s Eve is a traditional way of sending out the old year and welcoming in the New Year. I’ve also been told by Sonny that every door in the house and even the windows have to be open on the stroke of midnight to allow the old year out.

Shopping all done, now all we have to do is sit back and wait for the guests to arrive. I can’t wait to meet them all and hopefully find my Mr Right among them too!