Chinese New Year on the 1st of February offers the perfect opportunity to rescue yourself and your colleagues from the flagging spirits of the post Holiday Season. Marking the beginning of the next lunar year, which this year celebrates the Tiger, Chinese New Year offers our party-hungry nation a wonderful reason to celebrate. The simple ideas below will boost morale and set everyone up for a roaringly fun time. Enjoy!
- Spruce up your work environment with auspicious decorations and clothing
Celebrate Chinese New Year by putting up bright, red decorations such as lanterns, flowers, Chinese couplets and inverted 福 (fortune) characters to drive away bad luck and attract good fortune. Turn the activity into an office competition or send the materials to your home-based colleagues so they don’t miss out on the fun.
For the same reasons, it’s also traditional to buy new, red clothes. Encourage everyone to come dressed accordingly, and use the opportunity to take a team photo to post on social media.
- Organise a get together
It is a traditional for Chinese families to meet for a meal to celebrate the new lunar year. This signifies the end of everything negative from the past year, and the welcoming of happiness and prosperity for the year ahead.
Why not extend the pleasure to your work family? Covid is likely to put pay to restaurant flavoured plans but group Zoom meetings could offer a good substitute. Just make sure the only subjects on the menu are feel-good ones and well wishes!
- Toss the ‘Lou Hei’
There’s nothing like a good mix and toss of Lou Hei at Chinese New Year! Toss the ingredients up into the air while shouting various wishes for love, career, family and more. The idea is that the higher you toss the salad, the greater the chance that your wish will be fulfilled.
In the Covid era, Chinese deliveries are an inexpensive alternative that may even make your dreams come true…
- Bai nian in the office
Bai nian is the tradition of people presenting their well wishes to their elders. The elders then present their juniors with a red packet containing money. The first part of this custom presents the perfect chance for you to say thank you to your line managers, and to wish them well with specific projects to foster goodwill.
- Workplace spring cleaning
Chinese people traditionally spring clean their homes at this time of year. Allocate a dedicated slot to declutter physically and digitally.
For more ideas on how to celebrate, please click here.
However you choose to celebrate, your trusted partners at ABL wish you good fortune and a prosperous 2022 both in and outside the workplace. Gong xi fa cai!
