Some Culturally Relevant Information

Red Envelopes: During holidays or special events, rather than exchanging gifts there are red envelopes. So for Spring festival the parents give their kids money in the red envelopes. The kids don't give their parents anything, but eventually, there is a switch. The switch happens at different times depending on the family tradition, it might happen when the kids gets a job, get married, or turns a certain age. Red envelopes are also given at weddings.

Toasting: I don't know the story behind this, but apparently when your toasting with someone, the amount you drink is how long you will be friends. So for instance if you drink it all in one toast, it means you will be friend's forever. Obviously with all the toasting people weren't doing that, but when I toasted with the aunt, I noticed she was looking at me and we had an awkward moment where neither of us put down our cups, but we weren't drinking either, just kinda watching each other.

Eating: This one I have experienced a lot, I eat till I'm full, then I'm told to eat more. It's part of the hospitality, but man I walk away with a full stomach. After this happening a couple times I learned a helpful phrase (since “I'm full didn't work), “Bu Chi le”-basically mans I don't want to eat any more. Which might sound rude, but its not cuz everyone was saying it.

Some stories.....
The story behind Spring Festival is, there once was an evil creature called the “Nian”. And it terrified everyone because each year it would slowly family by family take them and the families were never seen again. Eventually some people discovered that the "Nian" was scared of red and loud noises, so they started to shoot off firecrackers and fireworks to scare it away. It eventually did leave, but people continued the tradition in memory of it's absence.

Why is red a lucky color in Chinese culture? In ancient Chinese times, fire was important. If you had fire you would live, it kept you warm, helped cook food, scared away wild animals and more. The color of fire is mostly red, so fire was associated with good luck and as Chinese culture has grown, the idea of red portraying good luck has remained.

Lanterns are also part of every Chinese holiday and the reason for these is much the same as fire. Lanterns were used to carry light (probably fire in their earliest stages) and used to scare away wild animals and such. Now they are part of the culture and you see them being hung for every Chinese holiday.