Tomorrow is the first day of Chinese New Year (traditionally a 14-day festival) and Zorro and I are headed out this evening for a Chinese New Year’s Eve celebration. We’ll be at one of the restaurants in Cleveland’s Chinatown enjoying a dinner and the lion dance. If you’ve never seen the lion dance, it’s one interesting ceremony. The lion is ushered into the room with banging cymbals and drums pounding a hypnotic rhythm. Tradition says that the noise drives away evil spirits. To assure good luck for the year, we’ll put money in small red envelopes and feed the lion when he dances by.

If you’d like to usher in the Year of the Rat in proper style, here are some things you can do.

The first day of the new year (tomorrow) is the day for welcoming the deities of the heavens and earth. It’s a time when families visit their oldest and most senior members.

On the second day, incense is burned at the graves of ancestors, and on this day, people are instructed to be extra kind to dogs (always good advice!) and feed them well because this is the birthday of all dogs.

The common man’s birthday is the seventh day of the holiday, the day when everyone grows one year older.

The final day of the holiday is the Lantern Festival when candles are lit outside houses to guide wayward spirits home.

In case you’re the superstitious type, here are some things you can do for good luck during the holiday:

open windows and doors
switch on lights for the night to scare away ghosts and spirits of misfortune
eat sweets
have your house cleaned before New Year’s Day

You’ll want to avoid:

buying a pair of shoes
buying a pair of pants
sweeping the floor (you don’t want to sweep away your luck)
buying books (gasp…I wonder if book sales go down for two weeks this time of year)

So happy Year of the Rat!

San nin faai lok!

Just a note: If you’re at Cleveland’s Home & Garden Show this Saturday, stop by the Cleveland Reads pavilion between 7 and 8. I’ll be there signing my Pepper Martin mysteries.