During the Spring Festival, Qidong people are used to calling it "New Year". Like all parts of the country, the New Year is the most solemn and lively traditional festival in Qidong. Beginning in the middle and late twelfth lunar month, people used long-handled brooms to dust off the surroundings and walls of the house, commonly known as "eaves dusting". This is the most thorough cleaning of the year. "Dust" and "Chen" are homophonic, which means dusting away bad luck.

People in Qidong actually celebrate the New Year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. On this day, people in Qidong will have a "24-night meal". The dishes are naturally much richer than usual, and the biggest feature is that every household has to cook "red bean rice". Before the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, every family would steam several cages of cakes steamed with sorghum flour and glutinous rice flour. There are ten kilograms or dozens of kilograms of steamed bread to be made in Lvsi area.

New Year's Eve is the busiest time for Qidong people. Every family has enough vegetarian dishes, and the dishes at the head of every household are fragrant. Qidong people will also pack lime with a dustpan or cattail, and compare a round white ash to a rice store at the entrance of their own yard, as a symbol of bumper harvests in the coming year and pray for good luck.

On New Year's Eve, Qidong people will pretend to be "old rice", hoping that next year, "there will be plenty of grain." After the New Year's Eve, people began to "keep watch". People sat around together, got together (non-"glutinous rice balls" with no stuffing, such as the size of a projectile) and cooked red dates.

On New Year's Day, people get up at dawn and wear new clothes. It is a must to put some cakes in white rice and cook tofu with big green vegetable heads. In Qidong, there are many taboos on this day, such as: no splashing water, no touching knives and scissors, no opening the back door, no swearing, no sweeping the floor, etc.