A week before the New Year, the Kitchen God jets off to the heavens to report the good and bad deeds witnessed in the past year. The household bids him farewell with a feast of sweets. (If you’ve been relatively good this year, this should serve to butter him up for a more favorable evaluation. If you’ve been especially bad, you can only hope that the sugar will seal his lips.) One the eve of the New Year, all windows and doors are opened wide to let the evil spirits escape. Red envelopes stuffed with cash, called hong bao, are passed out to friends, children and relatives.

Red Lantern canopy in Tianjin, China (People's Daily)

New Year’s Day commences with ritual offerings to ancestors and deities. People then make their rounds offering best wishes for the coming year to neighbors and loved ones.
 
The next several days are marked by the homecoming of sons and newlywed daughters, worshipping at local temples, and feasting on special dishes.
 
The flurry of visiting and well-wishing halts momentarily on day five of the New Year, called Po Wu. On this day, contacting the relatives is said to bring bad luck to both sides. Conveniently, this occasion also provides a much-needed break from family gatherings.
 
About two weeks after the first day of the Lunar Year, the typical Chinese village pulls out all the stops for its Lantern Festival or Yuan Xiao. The fete usually involves a dramatic procession of folk musicians, traditional dances, parading lions and other elaborate costumes and performances.
 
Photographs of a Lantern Festival can be found here.