Main Text:

“When it’s your year of the Chinese Zodiac, you have to wear something red for the whole year and not take it off”. Informant wore a bracelet, brother wore a bracelet, dad wore something around the waist. 

Context:

“I think it’s for good luck? Usually it’s something woven like string. I’ll shower with it on and everything. We put it on at Chinese New Year and cut it off at the following Chinese New Year. I only remember this being a thing for immediate family plus my grandma and grandpa. Maybe other families have different traditions. We also have to go to the temple during their animal year for prayers.” Red is a lucky color in Chinese culture. 

Thoughts:

As an outsider, it is difficult to add anything to the context already described by the informant. This is a New Year tradition and lines up with other Chinese New Year traditions that value bringing about good luck for the coming year or keeping bad luck away.