December 04, 2019

A Newlywed’s Guide to Chinese New Year

You are reading this because most likely – this is your first year to celebrate Chinese New Year as a married couple. There might be changes on your yearly traditions and if you don’t know where to start, it can be pretty scary. Thus, we made a quick guide for you.

Time to prepare the angpows

For many years, you’re the one who’s receiving angpows. But things will be changing soon as you’re going to give angpows to the little ones now. If you are unsure how much you need to give, ask your parents or those who are already used to giving out angpows. Similarly, there are a lot of angpow guides online. You can check those out and get the figure.

You should also give angpows to your parents and even grandparents. This is a sign that you wishing them good luck. Another point to note, always have extra red packets with you. You’ll never know if there will be other relatives or friends who will be present at the reunion, and it’s better to be prepared for situation like this! Always have one or two in your bag, perhaps for your relatives if they happen to need extra.

Schedule your reunion dinners

Chinese New Year is inevitably a period of reunion and feasting. Now that you are married, the number of visitations are bound to increase. Hence, proper scheduling of the time and date of the reunion dinners are important. Discuss this with your partner and see how you can better manage this new traditions.

Know how to address the family members accordingly

Since you are already a part of your partner’s family, it is only proper that you address all the family members accordingly. You might want to work with your partner in advance to ensure that you got everyone’s title right before the reunion. Avoid calling everyone ‘aunty’ and ‘uncle’, instead address their proper terms. What we recommend you to do is to draw a family tree beforehand, be it on paper or a mental image. Remember, preparation is key.

Preparing your house for your visitors

Before the festival starts, spring clean and prepare your house for visitation! It could be the first time your relatives are coming over to your new home for some of you who just recently got married, so make sure it speaks well of both of you! Getting some Chinese New Year goodies to share with them can also serve as a sign of appreciation.

Get ready for a lot of questions

And lastly, the array of questions you thought you finally got away from… Be prepared to (again) be bombarded with a lot of questions like when are you planning to have children or your plans in the near future. We understand that this can be overwhelming and can sometimes make you feel uncomfortable, hence all the more you should be prepared to handle situations like such.

So, are you ready for this coming Chinese New Year as a married couple? If you find this article helpful, please feel free to share it with your friends.