Jan. 29 marks the first day of Lunar New Year 2025. The holiday, with celebrations lasting for 15 days, has been commemorated in China and other Asian countries for centuries. Many who celebrate believe that what you do (and don’t do) on Lunar New Year will affect your luck in the coming year. With that belief have come superstitions that have been passed down from generation to generation.
One of the most well-known superstitions tied to Lunar New Year is not washing your hair. People avoid washing their hair on Lunar New Year because it’s believed to wash away good fortune. This belief stems from a linguistic similarity in Mandarin, with the word for hair (fa, 发) sharing both the same pronunciation and first character of the word for fortune (facai, 发财). That has evolved over the years into the superstition that it is not a good thing to wash hair as it might wash one’s fortune away.
Other Lunar New Year superstitions include not cutting your hair because you don’t want to cut off good fortune. Another is making sure to clean up and throw away trash before midnight, which is done to get rid of any bad luck that accumulated over the past year. Lunar New Year participants are also advised to settle all debts ahead of the new year.
Looking to celebrate Lunar New Year in 2025? Here’s a look at festivals, parades and more across Dallas-Fort Worth.
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