The festival mood can be felt with the beginning of la yueh (the 12th moon on the lunar calendar). Literarily, la means salted and smoked meats. As the lunar New Year's Day approaches, housewives get busy preparing salted and smoked meats, fish, and chicken for the year-end feast.
In an agricultural society, all the harvesting should have been completed before the coming of la yueh. During the last month of a lunar year, every business transaction or other important affair in the past months should have a settlement and the New Year should be a brand new start.
La yueh can be a joyful season for those who have abundant harvest to enjoy an affluent Spring Festival, a period of several days following New Year's Day. It may possibly become the most miserable time for those who are supposed to payoff their many debts before the end of the year.
An employer, according to custom, will entertain his employees at a big feast on the 16th of la yueh, which is known as wei ya (the year-end feast). Wei ya is the time the boss expresses his appreciation to his employees for their endeavors over the past year. It is also the time that the boss determines whether to continue his employees' contracts. An employee knows that he will not be hired for the coming year if the head of a cooked chicken is pointed at him.
After wei ya, chi chao (worship of the kitchen deity) on the 23rd of la yueh is the most important occasion. Maltose and glutinous rice cake will be prepared in rites honoring the kitchen deity so that he will be tight-lipped about the wrong doings of a family while reporting to the emperor of heaven.
Nien yeh fan (year-end feast) is the highlight of the lunar New Year festival. Lunar New Year's Eve is somewhat similar to the combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve in the United States. The whole family will get together to hold rites in honor of traditional heavenly deities and ancestors. Every family, rich or poor, will prepare the most extravagant meal of the year.
Children love the lunar New Year holiday most because they are allowed to do many things which at other times are harshly restricted. They can stay up as late as they wish. According to custom, children should sit up late to pray for their parents' longevity. Gambling is not allowed at other times of the year, but the elders will play dice, dominoes and other games with children during the lunar New Year season.
Ya suei chien (a red envelope with cash enclosed) is given to youngsters by their elders at midnight when thunderous firecrackers are set off by every family. Their loud reports, legend says, ward off evil and welcome a prosperous new year.
Married daughters should visit their parents together with their youngsters and their husbands. This custom is still closely followed today.
The lunar New Year festivities in the past would usual1y last till the 15th of the month. The 15th day, the Lantern Festival, is the last and one of the most colorful celebrations marking the lunar New Year.
The Lantern Festival is called yuan shiao chieh because the special small rice-flour dumplings, dubbed yuan shiao, are eaten on this day of lantern exhibitions, when every temple displays a large array of them, adding color and wonderful shades of light to the festivity.
There are a lot of romantic stories about the lantern festival in ancient China. Unmarried women, who seldom went out of their rooms, were allowed to visit the temples to see the beautiful lanterns. The lanterns, the full moon and attractive young ladies often gave inspiration to poets.
In Taiwan today the Lantern Festival is still warmly celebrated.