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Celebrations Mirror Changes in Family Life

Chinese traditionally stay home with all four generations of the family to celebrate the Lunar New Year, but this stereotype is making way for diverse modern celebrations in the world's most populous nation, where families are getting smaller.

Nuclear families comprising parents and one child are soon to make up the majority of urban Chinese families. Under such circumstances it's difficult for young couples to decide whether to celebrate the biggest family holiday with the husband's parents or the wife's. This year, many young couples spent the Spring Festival with parents from both sides.

The traditional exchange of visits between friends and relatives is out of favour with many young people, who resort to text messages via mobile phones or the Internet or phone calls to convey their New Year greetings.

Beijing Mobile handled more than one billion outgoing short messages on Lunar New Year's Eve alone -- and the company estimated more than 10 billion text messages would be sent over the week-long holidays that ended on February 16, up 200 million from last year.

Another trend involves people buying flowers to decorate their homes and to present them to relatives and friends as gifts.