Just like in China, family reunion and welcoming the new year are the most important themes on the festival. However, celebration customs are some different in the countries. In Vitenam, people decorate their homes with Chinese New Year pictures and flowers. On the first day of Chinese New Year, Vitenamese visit and greet each other. They think the first persons coming to visit bring good luck, so they like to invite the persons who they respect or like most as the first guests on this day. In Korea, on the first day of Chinese New Year, people put on traditional clothes and visit friends and relatives. On the evening of the day everyone goes to bed early and hides his/her shoes in case the shoes are stolen by Light Ghost. In addition, they put sieves and baskets on the door headers, because according to their legends Light Ghost likes to count everything he sees. When he sees a basket or screen, they count the holes on it. He must spend whole the night to count the holes and doesn't have time to steal the shoes. Korean celebrate also lantern festival on the fifteenth day of Chinese New Year. Japanese decorate their homes with pictures of pines and bamboos. Visitting temple is the most important activity for Janpanse on Chinese New Year festival.
In Singapole and Filipinne, Chinese New Year is also an official festival, although it is not a traditional festival of these countries. There are many Chinese in the countries, and the Chinese play important roles in the local economic and cultural lives. Setting Chinese New Year as an official festival is a way of the countries to show their respects to the contribution Chinese have made.