Chinese New Year 2015: Top 8 tech superstitions to ensure good luck in year of goat

The new Lunar Year of the Goat officially begins on 19 February and, while 2015 is predicted to be a much more auspicious year than 2014, there are still certain steps you can take to ensure that you start the year with the best possible luck.

And as technology is such a big part of our lives, while you're following traditional Chinese superstitions in terms of preparing your homes for the new year, you must not forget your tech gadgets.

Here is IBTimes UK's list of top tech superstitions to ensure good luck going into the Year of the Goat:

1. Clear your email inbox, PC desktop, Facebook messages

Before the Spring Festival begins, it is a Chinese tradition for the whole house to be cleaned from top to bottom, and cleaning is not permitted on the first day of Chinese New Year. So don't just stick with the physical, what about the virtual?

Before Chinese New Year begins, get clearing the stacks of unread emails in your work and personal email accounts?

Also delete documents, old software you don't need anymore, old icons you don't use on your PC desktop, run an adware cleaner, and at least have a look at all those unanswered Facebook messages.

2. Bring some yellow and red into your life

Much of Chinese culture revolves around the concept of "luck" and the accumulation of riches. The colour red symbolises luck and is believed to ward away evil, while yellow symbolises neutrality and good luck.

Yellow and gold also symbolise money, and yellow was considered to the traditional colour of the emperor in imperial China for thousands of years.

For Chinese New Year, it's a good idea to bring these colours onto your devices – you could change the background of your desktop or smartphone background to yellow and gold, buy a new case for your device in these colours or even use red or gold themed computer accessories.

Also, colours in general are important. Depending on what year you are born, you will be a certain element of an animal – e.g. 2015 will be the Year of the Wood Goat.

Different element animals have special lucky colours and should try to wear or display more of these colours around you (check your element and lucky colours here).

3. Don't edit or delete things during Chinese New Year

Were you planning to edit a document, delete some old files or edit some videos on Chinese New Year? Well don't.

Traditional Chinese New Year superstitions say you must never cook on the first day of the New Year and never cut or chop anything, as you might chop off your luck. The same thing applies here.

If you play Sims 3, Sims 4 or any other virtual home type game, don't build or edit it during this time.

4. Post sweet messages to your friends and play lots of Candy Crush

According to traditional ancient Chinese lore, the Kitchen God watches over every family on Earth and records what they do throughout the year. At the end of the year he presents a report to Yu Huang, the emperor of heaven.

Chinese families usually place offerings in their kitchen to the kitchen god, including a super-sweet cake made from glutinous rice called "Nian Gao" (Year Cake). The idea is to sweeten the kitchen god up so that he tells the emperor of heaven good things about the family.

So make sure you play sweet-themed games on your mobile devices like Candy Crush, eat lots of sweet things, say lots of sweet things online to your friends and family, in order to ensure good luck and a good report to heaven.

5. Don't kill anything or die in a game

I know, it's a holiday, so you want to be at home on Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network playing Far Cry 4, Destiny or Call of Duty while encouraging or insulting some dude in America who's playing against you.

Please don't. During Chinese New Year, foul language must not be used, and there can't be any mentions of death or dying, as this is unlucky. Maybe try playing games like Prince of Persia, where the character doesn't die but you just replay the level.

For obvious reasons, horror films and ghost stories are taboo at this time too.

6. Keep lots of web browser tabs open on your devices

Are you one of those people who always has a huge bunch of Chrome or Firefox web browser windows open at one time? Good, keep that up during Chinese New Year.

It is believed that opening windows and doors brings in good luck in the new year, so make sure you leave lots of open browser tabs on all your devices and your desktop computer.

7. Don't buy any new ebooks

In the Chinese language, the word "book" sounds a lot like the word "lose", so because you never want to lose out, Chinese people usually don't buy books in the first few days of Chinese New Year. So put down that Kindle, no ebooks for you until the week is out.

8. Install new programs and apps

Chinese New Year is the beginning of a new cycle, where rebirth and new growth is possible. So now that you've started the new year with clean inboxes and you have more space on your hard drive, install new programs and download new apps (maybe efficiency, fitness or games?) to signify the new direction your life will be taking.

Okay, now that you're ready for Chinese New Year, it's time to celebrate and sing the Gong Xi Gong Xi Song (literally "Congratulations, Congratulations"), which congratulates everyone on surviving winter and getting to the new year: