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Devour a moon cake (pastry with sweet red bean paste), give money to the youngsters and eat an enormous dinner. Usually how it goes in my neck of the woods.
Been in Taiwan only twice for the new year. They're less traditional about the holiday than mainlanders (a term, by the way, that is being slowly phased out by the Taiwanese - they don't want the island to be considered "just an extension" of the "mainland"). Actually, my second time was almost identical to the calendar new year (gregorian), which I had also celebrated there. But old school observances mostly include a full day with your family - burn food as an offering to the ancestors, children pray with elders, and then rounds - as an entire group - to visit other fams. The types of food eaten at what usually becomes a frontrunner in the world's biggest dinner competition also bear much significance.
This year the friends and I are making dumplings. We're planning on about 250; at last winter's dumpling fest we made about 150. Steamed, fried, boiled - it will be a darlin' of a time.
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