12 Facts About The Chinese New Year You Probably Didn’t Know

10. New Year, Older You

On the day of the Chinese New Year, everyone grows one year older, regardless of when they were actually born. It’s like the birthday of an entire nation! This is called the East Asian age reckoning, and says that life begins at age 1 (instead of 0). This means that people are actually one or two years older in Asian reckoning than the traditional aging system!

11. “Spring” Cleaning

The days before the Chinese New Year are when houses conduct a thorough spring cleaning of sorts. This is done to get rid of any negative effects left over from the previous year. On the contrary, a number of days following the new year are when no cleaning or throwing of garbage is done; so as to not accidentally get rid of positive vibes of the new year.

12. Cursed Singledom

Single men and women who are approaching their thirties are considered to be unacceptable in the Chinese society. Therefore, parents will try and set their single adult children up when they visit for the new year. To solve this problem, recent times have seen the uptick in rent-a-boyfriend/girlfriend, where men and women are available for “rent” to pretend to be your significant other while you visit family. What bizarre, yet genius idea!