Well, our New Year celebration is long over, but the Chinese are just gearing up for their biggest festival of the year. Just as Americans would consider Christmas our number one holiday with it being not just one day but an entire season, the Chinese have the lunar New Year (also called Spring Festival). The official New Year's day is January 26th this year, but as the date gets closer we hear fireworks pretty much every night and firecrackers during the day. The stores are packed with shoppers buying gifts, candy, and cleaning products (it is tradition to do a thorough house-cleaning before the holiday).
The celebrations start on the day of the first new moon of the new year when families come together to share a meal. This is also the biggest travel holiday in China. For many of the migrant workers who come to find work in the cities, it is the only time all year that they get to go back to the countryside to see their families. It all ends 15 days later with the full moon when they have a lantern festival with children carrying lanterns in a parade. All the days in between are designated for visits to various family members, friends, and temples to pray for good fortune and health in the coming year.
On December 26th all the Christmas decorations disappeared from town being replaced by red and gold banners, blooming azaleas (to represent rebirth and new growth), potted tangerine trees (a symbol of abundant happiness), and fish made out of embroidered red silk hung on front doors (see photo above). The Chinese word for fish (yu) is similar to the word for abundance so it symbolizes the hope for prosperity and many blessings in the coming year.
As with all holiday celebrations all over the world, food plays an important role in the festivities. For the Chinese, many of the foods selected are representative of various wishes for the new year: whole fish for togetherness and abundance, a whole chicken (with head and feet) for completeness, dried bean curd which is a homonym for wealth and happiness, etc. Noodles are prepared and eaten without breaking them to ensure long life. Dumplings, although a pretty typical meal any day of the year, are also eaten duing this holiday as dumplings are shaped to look like the ancient Chinese coins.
I may complain about Christmas being so commercial in the US, but it seems to me that in the Chinese customs, there is a lot of talk about money. Sure, I suppose "prosperity" could refer to non-material wealth as well - but there is plenty of mention of cold, hard cash. For the kids on Chinese New Year, their parents and relatives hand out red envelopes with money called hong bao.
I mentioned the cleaning before. One of the reasons to get all of your cleaning done before New Year's day is because it is unlucky to sweep for the first 5 days of the celebrations - the superstition being that you will sweep all of your good luck for the new year out the door. On New Year's day there is also to be no disparaging words or bad language and definitely no talk of death. There is also a belief that if you cry on new year's day, you will cry all year so the kids can get away with a lot of mischief since their parents don't want to scold them and risk making them cry. Hmmm...some cash and trouble-making with impunity vs. Santa Claus...it's a tough call.
This year is the year of the Ox, so any babies born this year are expected to be generally calm, patient, and hardworking. But on the down side they can also be stubborn and narrow-minded. Probably not a bad year to have a kid. You are an ox if you were born in 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, or 1997.
So Happy Lunar New Year everyone! Hope it's a prosperous one!
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