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In Chinese celebrations, whether it is an important birthday or a traditional festival, one of the most typical elements (元素) is the lucky and auspicious (吉祥的) symbols.
To most Chinese, when it comes to lucky symbols, the top three are surely fu, lu and shou, which are sometimes called the three gods.
During Chinese New Year, we would put up red squares with the character fu on them. Some people would put their fu character upside down. In Chinese when we say the fu character is upside down, it sounds like good luck has arrived.
lu often has to do with one's job and richness. Lu refers to well pay and ranks (等级) in ancient China. Hulu, gourds (葫芦), sounds like hulu (护禄) which means protecting lu. So traditionally, people use gourds to scare away bad spirits and illnesses and keep rich and successful.
Shou means long-lived life. Even nowadays when someone is having their holiday celebration, we would call this person shouxing, a god. At birthday parties for elder people, we often see peaches. That's because according to the legend (传说), the Queen Mother of the West grows peaches in her own garden, and whoever gets to eat these peaches will live forever.
Besides the three, lucky and auspicious symbols can be easily found in the food we eat. For the Chinese New Year dinner, most families would have fish because the character fish sounds like surplus (有余). In southern China, niangao, a kind of rice cake is a lucky food because niangao sounds like getting higher every year. And for Lantern Festival, we have tangyuan, a kind of sticky rice dumplings. They are round shapes and the pronunciation of the food symbolizes being together.