--- title: 10 Things Those Who Celebrate Lunar New Year Will Understand description: From kumquat trees to the social pitfalls of giving and receiving lucky money canonical: https://time.com/2238/chinese-new-year-lunar-rooster/ author: Madeleine Fitzpatrick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-01-28T04:15:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T10:00:47.000Z og:title: Happy Lunar New Year! og:description: Here are 10 things only people who celebrate it will understand og:url: https://time.com/2238/chinese-new-year-lunar-rooster/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0153b882ec58e0d1/6988b783196cf4950303ea30/gettyimages-630644218.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: A Giant Rooster With Donald Trump Hairstyle Outside A Shopping Mall In China og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Happy Lunar New Year! twitter:description: Here are 10 things only people who celebrate it will understand twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0153b882ec58e0d1/6988b783196cf4950303ea30/gettyimages-630644218.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # It's the Year of the Rooster. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Madeleine Fitzpatrick](https://time.com/author/madeleine-fitzpatrick/) ## Madeleine Fitzpatrick Updated: Dec 14, 2023 10:00 AM UTCPublished: Jan 28, 2014 4:15 AM UTC by [Madeleine Fitzpatrick](https://time.com/author/madeleine-fitzpatrick/) ## Madeleine Fitzpatrick Updated: Dec 14, 2023 10:00 AM UTCPublished: Jan 28, 2014 4:15 AM UTC 1\. How lifting the lid off one of these still gives you a feeling of totally childish joy.  the box of completeness is must at every household celebrating Chinese New Year. It is filled with candies, sugared fruits and all kinds of sweet knick-knacks.When greeting an elderly, one will hold the box up and after greetings, the elderly will choose a snack from the box, symbolizing acceptance. Getty Images 2\. How no Chinese mall’s entrance is fully dressed [without this inflatable](http://time.com/4619394/donald-trump-china-rooster-lunar-new-year-inflatable/).  A view of a giant rooster sculpture with a Donald Trump hairstyle, installed to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Rooster outside a shopping mall, on Dec. 29, 2016, in Taiyuan, China Barcroft Media/Getty Images 3\. How this tune can both grate and be deeply comforting at the same time. 4\. Rising to the sartorial challenge set by each year’s changing Chinese Zodiac.  Man in chicken costume on escalator Getty Images 5\. This song about the inevitable, annual questions from prying relatives on each and every stage of the life cycle. 6\. The lure of this [date-for-hire app](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-lunar-newyear-china-girlfriend-idUSKBN15A1NY), with its promise to shut family members down. But with festive surge pricing sending daily rates as high as $1,500, your equally mandated great-paying job might actually need to exist.  A page of a date-hiring app "Hire Me Plz," which says "Rent now for 999 yuan an hour," is shown in this picture illustration in Beijing on Jan. 26, 2017 Damir Sagolj—Reuters 7\. Feeling crazily incomplete without at least one of these on the lawn or patio or balcony. > [](https://twitter.com/MO%5FLANDMARKHK/status/822029089896857600) 8\. The schadenfreude you feel on seeing someone who’s clearly been coerced into sporting traditional garb. > [](https://twitter.com/AFP/status/427463649020477442) 9\. Why this is [the most important flowchart](http://i.imgur.com/hcThE0B.jpg) you’ll ever come across in your young (or older-but-still-not-rolling-in-it) life. 10\. That there’s never been a better year to gift your baby cousin a [Rocky Rooster](http://www.toysrus.com/buy/large-dolls/cabbage-patch-kids-9-inch-farm-cuties-rocky-rooster-3011001006-81730666) Cabbage Patch doll.  And whatever you’re doing this Lunar New Year, here’s wishing you an amazing and wonderful Year of the Rooster! Cock-a-doodle-doo!  Traditional papercut rooster art in circle floral frame of Year of the Rooster. Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2238/chinese-new-year-lunar-rooster/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2238/chinese-new-year-lunar-rooster/"},"headline":"It's the Year of the Rooster. 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