His in-laws live only four kilometers away but it is not an ideal day for a visit.

The early morning temperature has dropped to minus 10 degrees Celsius. More importantly, it is considered improper for a married woman to visit her parents on the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, which would bring misfortune to her husband's family, according to old rural customs prevailing especially in the northern part of the country.

Twenty-seven years after she married Lu, Chen Guixiang decided she would throw off the taboo that has bound her as well as the majority of the rural population that makes up 80 percent of China's 1.3 billion people.

In China, a country with diverse traditions and faiths, there are many other taboos to be observed during the Spring Festival, the most festive time of the year. Firm believers of the customs say if you strictly follow the rules, you'll have a prosperous new year.

"We do have many taboos: some are handed down generation upon generation and others come from unknown sources," said Li Guiting,an elderly who has lived in Beiwangzhuang village in north China's Hebei Province for nearly 80 years.

For centuries, the villagers abide by all the ancient rules out of fear they might bring bad luck to their families or friends, said Li.

As the custom goes, the villagers have to watch their tongues before the holiday. When families gather to make dumplings for the lunar New Year, no one is allowed to ask whether the flour or filling has been"used up"-- because it can be easily associated with the exhaustion of fortune.

On the Chinese lunar New Year's Day, which fell on Jan. 29 thisyear, the villagers all keep to a vegetarian diet and avoid sweeping the floor because it is believed they will sweep out fortune along with dirt.

It is also an unauspicious sign to break a bowl or vase during the holiday season. If one accidentally breaks one, he or she must immediately say"sui-sui-ping-an," meaning"have peace all the year round" as the Chinese word for"broken" is pronounced in the same way as the word for"year."

Even children have to observe strict rules such as never to play with needle or thread or to have a haircut in the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar. Needle and thread, the villagers believe, would bring snakes to their house and a haircut would bring bad luck to their mothers' brothers.

Brave as she is to visit her parents on a forbidden day, Chen Guixiang still worries she might be playing with fire."My husband doesn't believe the nonsense and insists I should go ahead," she told Xinhua in an interview.

And the couple are not the only ones to break the taboo.

"Spring Festival taboos are being phased out in the countryside," said Prof. Chen Jing, a folklore specialist with Nanjing University in east China's Jiangsu Province.

The professor attributed to the changes to the development of modern civilization in rural areas.

"We don't take all the old rules too seriously nowadays," said Zhang Zhicui, a woman in Xiyuan village, northwest China's Gansu Province."Many families do a thorough cleaning on the New Year's Day to welcome guests."

Taboos are expressions of the people's wishes for a better liferather than codes of conduct, Zhang said."Many people have come to realize the fact, so taboos are less binding these days."

As more farmers are working and living in cities, the new lifestyles and ideas they bring back to their home villages also help brainwash the locals, said Prof. Chen.

"Besides, the popularity of television, the Internet and other modern communication devices have also helped change the rural people's thinking," he said.

Li Hongming, a farmer who works in Gansu's provincial capital Lanzhou, said he values traditions and folklore but opposes to superstitious beliefs.

"I visited my in-laws on the lunar New Year's Day, though I was supposed to do that only three days later. There's no sign it's doing anyone any harm," he said with a laugh.

(By Liu Baosen, Zhao Renwei, Zhou Yan)