Taking a nap today could be bad for you for the rest of the year

Taking a nap today could wreak havoc on your productivity for the rest of the year.

Today marks Chinese New Year and the start of a new lunar year.

There have been celebrations across the world since last night and leading into today and tonight to welcome in the year of the Year of the Rabbit.

With all the festivities going on, surely there's time for a nap somewhere in between? Or perhaps, even if you're not observing the celebrations, you just want a few minutes of shut-eye before the working week begins.

You should think twice before settling down on a pillow today because according to Chinese tradition, taking a nap on the first day of the new lunar year will make you a very lazy person for the rest of the year.

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Let's face it, we all want to start the new year on a positive note, so, maybe the Sunday afternoon nap after lunch will have to be cancelled.

Napping isn’t the only activity you should avoid today if you want to have a fruitful year, according to Chinese tradition.

Other taboos includes not doing some household chores like sweeping and washing clothes, to some that some people may find more unusual, like not eating porridge - as its considered poor people’s food.

It's taboo for a person to brew herbal medicine or take medicine on the first day of the lunar year, otherwise you might get ill for the whole year.

Sweeping or taking out the rubbish is associated with sweeping wealth away, while dumping bags of waste symbolises getting rid of good luck or fortune from the house. You'll have to wait until the fifth day of the lunar year.

Washing clothes on the first two days of Chinese New Year, could be seen as being offensive to the water God.

So, if these are your chores for today here’s a perfect excuse to get out of doing it.

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Words with negative meanings, or ‘unlucky’ words shouldn’t be said. This includes words related to death, sickness or poverty, which should be replaced with euphemisms.

Another thing you should do is make sure you don’t break any type of dish, vase or mirror. It could lead to money loss and family split in the future.

And in what may come as a complete shock to parents of young children, children shouldn’t cry during the new year celebrations because it could bring bad luck to parents and their family. Parents must keep their children from crying by any means possible.

So, airline passengers who strongly hate crying children could raise this taboo with the parents if they’re flying today.

Lending or borrowing anything not he first day of Chinese New Year, especially money, is unlucky and could mean economical loss.

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If a married daughter returns home to visit her family on Chinese New Year, her parents could be tricked by poverty. This is because daughters are viewed as outsiders once they get married.

Needle work, using scissors and getting a haircut is not recommended at the start of the new lunar year. The first two could lead to unnecessary quibbles while getting a new ‘do could lead to the death of your maternal uncle. The latter is thought to originate from a poor orphaned boy who gave his uncle a haircut as a New Year’s gift because he couldn’t afford anything else. The haircut as a gift became a tradition for the boy and once the uncle died, the barber missed him so much, he mourned his death every New Year.