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Year of the Dragon 2024 - a complete guide: from zodiac predictions and traditions to what to wear and lucky foods, 10 essential reads to see you through Lunar New Year
- The Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday in the Chinese calendar but following all the different traditions and keeping track of your fortune is not easy
- Fear not – these 10 articles cover the most important things to know, and will have you impressing friends and relatives in no time
The Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday in the Chinese calendar. It is a time for family gatherings, feasts and temple visits, and people are eager to know the fate predicted for them in the coming lunar year according to the zodiac sign they were born under.
Read on to learn details of Chinese traditions surrounding the festival, and to find out your lucky number, stone and colour, and what fortune holds for you at work and home in the Year of the Dragon.
1. Year of the Dragon 2024: is your luck in? All 12 Zodiac sign predictions
How will your Chinese zodiac animal fare in 2024? Your luck could be helped by the presence of lucky stars and the intervention of bringers of good luck, or could fall victim to the presence of cursed stars.
2. What to wear for Chinese New Year? The clue is in one of those 3 words
![To ensure good luck in the year to come, wear red clothing that’s new at Chinese New Year, like this family. Photo: Shutterstock](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/02/07/828325df-45d1-4d46-a952-7c17f42d9f00_435742c5.jpg)
What to wear for Chinese New Year? You can’t go wrong with a new set of clothes that are red or gold in colour.
3. Why you should wear your lucky red underwear for Lunar New Year
![Wearing red underwear is one way people can bring themselves good luck in the Year of the Dragon 2024 - especially if their Chinese zodiac animal faces predictions of bad luck. Photo: AFP](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/02/08/591c0da1-95f1-48a8-823a-a4d2d2f78355_0c42f09f.jpg)
Columnist Luisa Tam says she burst out laughing when she saw the words “bright red underwear for Chinese New Year” in a promotional email she received. It was as if a divine power from above was reminding her that it was time to prepare for the Lunar New Year, she wrote.
4. Chinese Lunar New Year traditions we rarely observe – like not showering
![Traditionally, people would not wash their hair during the first two days of the Lunar New Year because they believed it would wash away their prosperity for the coming year. Photo: Shutterstock](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/02/07/6f51105a-f851-46a9-8bdf-e884f0b52837_25c0ee2b.jpg)
5. Year of the Wood Dragon: predictions, personalities, wood element’s meaning
![Craftsmen make dragon-shaped lanterns for a Lunar New Year lantern fair in Shenyang, China. Photo: Getty Images. Photo: Getty Images](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/02/07/96bf62a9-d22e-41d2-beff-7e7386e51cc9_1126e908.jpg)
Enter the Year of the Dragon. Or, to be more precise, the Year of the Wood Dragon.
6. What Chinese animal am I? Their characteristics and when their years fall
![Illustration: Victor Sanjinez Garcia](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/02/07/0fea251e-5cfd-4407-bdd1-6fb5b72e18d7_0d8cba38.jpg)
The roots of the Chinese animal signs are still debated, but one widely accepted legend tells of how the Jade Emperor sought 12 animals to guard time’s cycles. A race to the Heavenly Gate ensued, crowning the Rat, followed by the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig in that order.
7. The top 10 ways to say Happy New Year in Chinese – Cantonese and Mandarin
![From “happy new year” to “may you be prosperous” to “wishing you good health”, there are many traditional greetings to say to people during Chinese New Year. Photo: Shutterstock](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/02/07/f7986839-ee54-4efd-a835-3c4ba0b7e09a_741ac6ff.jpg)
How do you say Happy New Year in Chinese? The most common way in Cantonese is to say san nin faai lok, and in Mandarin, xin nian kuai le.
8. Why you should pay your debts before Chinese New Year
![The rear entrance of the Standard Chartered Bank Building, in Central, was daubed with red paint in 2005, allegedly by debt collectors chasing payment from an employee of the bank. Photo: SCMP](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/02/07/289896f4-f686-42a0-8124-11a63e7204c8_1156fd18.jpg)
When Lunar New Year rolls around, so does the customary Chinese practice of paying off one’s debts, columnist Jason Wordie writes.
9. Lunar New Year lucky foods: everything you need to know
![Lunar New Year pudding cakes. Photo: Jonathan Wong](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/02/07/974e2f06-3a9a-4d14-9108-d307ecfa5a66_ee67647d.jpg)
Chinese people are practical food lovers.
10. How long is Chinese New Year and what does each day hold?
![Worshippers offer incense at Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong on Lunar New Year’s Eve in 2019. Photo: Edmond So](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/02/07/12af146c-851b-4a8e-9171-923366fb0e79_a2e3d699.jpg)
Chinese New Year celebrations last 16 days, from the eve of the first lunar month to the Lantern Festival marking the first full moon of the new lunar year.
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