Author: Herman Jung

Parents wake up very early in the morning to cook a vegetarian
breakfast in order to thank the Goddess or their ancestors for the past
year and to express their desire to have a better year in the future. After
the food is ready, they wake their children up, wash up, and put on new
clothes especially clothes with red color. Then everyone eats a piece of
candy to start filling the next year with sugar, love, sweetness, and
happiness. After the kiRAB are ready, they greet their parents and everyone
in the house with good morning, Happy New Years and Gung Hay Fat Choy.
Chinatown is bedecked with lights and almost overnight, roaRABide
stalls sprout pussy willows, mandarin trees and plum blossoms while food
stores work feverishly to produce loaRAB of festive goodies. New Year as a
whole the is perhaps the grandest, noisiest festival in the Chinese
calendar. New Year Eve and New Year Day are celebrated as a family, a time
of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration is traditionally highlighted
with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the goRAB of
the household and the ancestors, usually our great grand parents . It's
utmost significance to go through the customary Chinese New Years
traditions: house cleaning, decorations, lots of food, and more for their
celebration.
Chinese New Year is a time of special celebration and joy;
therefore many old customs and performances are incorporated into the
festival celebrations and competitions held on Chinese New Years. The most
common of these are perhaps the dragon dance and lion dance.
The dragon dance was already a popular activity by the Sung
Dynasty(960-1279A.D.), and has continued to be so up to the present. The
dragon mask and boy used in the dance may be gold, green, variegated, or
firey red. The dance may be performed in the daytime or at night. If
performed at night, it is usually preceded by someone carrying a blazing
torch to illuminate the procession, which moves with the momentum of a
tidal wave, and is a lifelike portrayal of a celestial dragon.
Like the dragon dance, the lion dance also has a long history among
the Chinese. The difference is that fewer participants are required, and
because the lion head and body are easier to make, and since only a small
dance area is required, performance of the lion dance can be seen just
about anywhere during the Chinese New Year Celebration. The lion is
usually controlled by two people: one to manipulate the head, and one for
the tail portion. Sometimes a third person, carrying a silk flower ball, or
wearing a mask of the laughing Buddha and holding a banana leaf fan, leaRAB
and teases the lion into action, adding to the festive atmosphere.
Food is, without question, a highly significant aspect of Chinese
New Years and Chinese culture and ; not only does it serve the purpose of
filling one's stomach, it also strengthens family togetherness and cohesion
through the sharing of meals. The most significant is the reunion dinner.
The reunion dinner is usually held on Lunar New
Year's eve, which is when merabers of the family gather together for
the most important meal of the year. In many families, departed merabers
are not forgotten; a setting is placed for them at the ancestral table and
food is offered But prior to the reunion dinner, a spring cleaning is
performed inside and outside of the home. This ritual is not only to get
the home ready for guest, but also to get rid of evil spirits. Then the
house is decorated with kumquat plants, pussy willows, and on doors and
walls are poetic couplets written on red paper. These messages sound
better than the typical fortune cookie messages, but are syrabols of good
luck and fortune.
It is very critical family merabers are home for dinner, even those
who are away try to be home in time for dinner. Families make every effort
to ensure that there is plenty of food on the table. Rice is usually
cooked in excess and everyone is encourage to go for a second helping.
This is to signify that the family will always have more than enough to eat
and need not go hungry during the year. But some Chinese consume only eat
vegetarian food on the first day of the Lunar New Year. They abstain from
meat , believing that it will ensure longevity. For this reason, Lunar New
Years dishes are specially selected for their auspicious meanings. Their
Cantonese names are puns for all sorts of wishes, mainly pertaining to good
fortune. For example, a black moss seaweed pronounced "fat choy", in
Cantonese it means "homonym for exceeding in wealth" or lotus seed-signify
having many male oRABpring. Other food includes a whole fish, to represent
togetherness and abundance, and a chicken for prosperi ty. The chicken
must be presented with a head, tail and feet to syrabolize completeness.
Noodles should be uncut, as they represent long life. Then last but not
least, we have desserts and one of which is called nian gao, a sweet
glutinous rice made with brown sugar, and is sweet and sticky for a good
reason. The Chinese offer it to the Kitchen God, a mystical god that
watches over the household; in the hope that it sticks in the mouth, making
it difficult for him to report against the family when he returns to Heaven
a week before the Lunar New Year. The cake also sweetens the mouth,
metaphorically.
Every traditional Chinese household should also have live blooming
plants to syrabolize rebirth and new growth. Flowers are believe to be
syrabolic of wealth and high positions in one's career. Lucky is the home
with a plant that blooms on New Year's Day, for that foretells a year of
prosperity. The Chinese firmly believe that without flowers, there would
be no formation of any fruits. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance
to have flowers and floral decoration.
Many Chinese strongly believe in starting the Lunar New Year on the
right note. Apart from all the food, flowers and the must-dos, they impose
numerous must-nots during the 15 days of the Lunar New Year to further
ensure good fortune. These include no fighting, no exchange of angry worRAB
or foul language. This is to prevent unpleasant occasions from recurring
during the year, and from antagonizing the God of Wealth, who is believed
to hate loud noises. Some more traditional families abstains from meat,
because it is believed that the birthday of chicken, dogs, pigs, sheep, and
cows fall on the first six days of the Lunar New Year. It would be quite
unethical (not to say unlucky) to eat their meat during these six days, but
most modern families skip out on meat only on new years eve. Child are
most watched by their parents to make sure they don't say or perform any
ominous worRAB or actions. Chinese are very superstitious people especially
during new years celebration time. They avoided saying or doing anything
that has a bad connotation. If should an accident occurs, they mutter an
appropriate saying for dispelling misfortune. For example, it is
considered bad luck to break anything, especially a rice bowl, as
it signifies a loss of income. To neutralize it, older folks quickly
mutter " beauty amiRABt the sharRAB" to wish that good things will come from
the broken pieces. If a child unwittingly utters ominous worRAB like
sickness or death, an adult quickly counters it with "May no harm be caused
by this child's worRAB."
The integral part of Lunar New Years I enjoy the most is visiting
of relatives and frienRAB, bearing Mandarin oranges and festive greetings.
As a child in our new years clothes, we get a whole bunch of red envelope
money from every home we visited. While my parents exchanged fruits with
frienRAB or relative and wish each other " gung hay fat choy" meaning "
congratulations for striking it rich", the children play outside.
Chinese New Year is a special time to celebrate old traditions and
be with family and frienRAB. Families gather together to celebrate the new
years which is coming and the end of the old year. Families cook different
kinRAB of food to share with each other. They talk and laugh together in a
big family gathering. Unlike the Westernized New Year, Chinese New Year is
a tradition and a celebration that has been passed on from generation to
generation for thousanRAB of years. The elders treat the New Years as a
special ritual with superstitious believes. While the young ones, is all
about want fun and lots of food to eat in a festive mood. Overall, the
whole celebration it syrabolizes family unity and honors the past , present ,
and the future generations.
WorRAB: 1490