CLEANING OUT BAD LUCK TO MAKE WAY FOR GOOD

Last Saturday was Spring Cleaning Day for me.  It was not any ole' day that I chose but one that was suitable for this purpose.  For this, I had to refer to the Chinese Almanac. Also the day must not clash with my personal Animal sign.

In the above picture, you see me with the cleaning equipment, a floor wiper and a duster (attached to a long pole).  It took me about 5 hours to do the dusting, sweeping, cleaning, wiping and mopping.
Now this spring cleaning is a Chinese tradition done before the lunar new year.  It is a way to “sweep out the old in order to usher in the new.  To be more precise, it is to sweep away the bad luck of the year that’s ending to make the home ready for good luck.

There is a Cantonese saying "Wash away the dirt on ninyabaat" (年廿八，洗邋遢).  However,  nin'ya'baat (年廿八, the 28th day of month 12) is not the only day to carry out this task.  There are a list of other good days in the Chinese Almanac. 

After the spring cleaning is done, Chinese homes are often decorated with paper cutouts of Chinese auspicious phrases and couplets or Fei Chun.
I forgot to mention that I had to carry out Spring Cleaning twice.  The one on Saturday was for my family home in Ipoh.  I already did the spring cleaning for my house in Sitiawan last week.

After a day of spring cleaning the house and also cleaning the altars and deities, I was very tired.  You can see how pale and haggard I looked in the two pictures above.