1. Sweep or sleep
As tradition dictates, it is best to clean the house well before the new year begins (on February 12) in order to sweep out the old and usher in the new. The “big sweep” day typically takes place two days before the festival in order to make sure a home is sparkling and ready to receive guests. (Cleaning on the first few days after the new year risks sweeping all the incoming good luck out the door.)
Considering friends and relatives may not be too keen to visit this year, why not book a staycation package that comes with dining deals and banquets from hotels like the Rosewood or the Peninsula, where the sweeping is done for you instead?
See also: Chinese New Year Traditions From Our Tatler Community
2. The new feast
In traditional Guangdong cuisine, before and on the first day of Chinese New Year, a casserole of cabbages, wood ear fungi, mushrooms, beans and glass noodles is cooked with fermented bean curd and served in clay pots. People typically abstain from eating meat and consume inexpensive vegetables as a way to pray for blessings for a good start of the year. But the emperor’s casserole was a decadent feast of expensive ingredients. During the Song Dynasty (AD960 to 1279), when Mongolia invaded China, Emperor Bing escaped to Guangdong province and the north of Hong Kong, where villagers gathered seafood and seasonal produce in washbasins to feed the emperor and his army.
Today, poon choi, or “basin casserole”, contains fish maw, dried oysters, abalone, prawns, chicken and duck, and has become a symbol of unity and prosperity in the New Territories’ walled villages. With meatless meat now widespread in Hong Kong thanks to retailers like Green Common, try creating your own unique casserole recipe with plant-based ingredients this year.
See also: Chinese New Year 2021: The Best Poon Choi In Hong Kong