What Do You Need To Know: Chinese New Year

Last night, my dad sent me some pictures. He is already retired, and every year his old company hosts a feast dinner for all its retired people before the Chinese New Year. My dad sent me pictures during the feast dinner, and it reminded me that Chinese New Year is only a few weeks away (February 8, 2016). Chinese New Year is a huge holiday in China.

 

I have not really celebrated the CNY for a couple years, but in the early years after I moved to the U.S., Bob and Red Bear and I would go to Chinatown in Los Angeles to see the big parade and Dragon Dancers. It was fun!

I always have people ask me about the CNY, like how we celebrate and what it’s all about, so today I spent some time to share what I know about the CNY.

 

The Basics:

Chinese New Year, traditionally the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar, is also called the Spring Festival. It’s a more family-focused affair than the Western New Year on January 1, with sit-down dinners replacing blowout parties. Each year in the Chinese calendar is represented by one of twelve different zodiac animals. This year will be the “Year of the Monkey.”

 

What We Eat:

Chinese New Year is 15 days long. On Chinese New Year’s Eve, families gather for an enormous feast, complete with dumplings that look like ancient coins in northern China, and sticky rice cakes in southern China. Other traditional foods include fish; in several different Chines dialects, the word for “abundance” also sounds like the word for fish. Chinese New Year food also includes tangerines, the word for which sounds like the word for “luck,” and long, uncut noodles, which signify a long life. Since eight is a lucky number, New Years Eve dinner often consists of eight courses.

 

What We Do:

Beside gathering for a big dinner at the CNY Eve, nearly everyone in China lights off fireworks and firecrackers. I remember every CNY Eve when I was in China was really loud and thunderous! It’s impossible for you to hear anything else beside fireworks and firecrackers.

Conventional New Year preparations include shopping for clothes, hanging paper scrolls that contain wishes for such things as “happiness” and “wealth,” and repaying all debts. It’s also time for spring cleaning, traditionally believed to sweep away bad luck and appease the gods — and we must make sure to finish before the New Year actually starts; otherwise, you might be getting rid of good luck!

The holiday then continues for 15 days, lasting from the new moon to the full moon. It ends with the aptly named Lantern Festival, when lanterns are hung outside homes and on streets. (Some people also celebrate the so-called “Small New Year,” an homage to the “kitchen god” that takes place a few days before the New Year’s Eve dinner.)

 

What We Wear:

Red & Gold are the royal and lucky colors in China, so mostly people wear Red during the CNY. It doesn’t need to be all Red — a red tie, red accessories, and wearing red underwear is common and popular. For the most traditional celebration, just about when midnight strikes to bring in the New Year, we take a shower and put on new red underwear, and set off all kinds of fireworks!

 

What to Give:

1.Children are always given red envelopes with money inside.

 

2. Food is an important component to New Year. Sweet food that symbolizes wealth are common gifts, and things that represent the zodiac sign for the New Year. This year will be the Year of the Monkey, so gifts that represent monkeys will be popular — and beautiful wrapping is a must! I like this GODIVA limited edition Lunar New Year collection. They really got it right, with pieces of candy in the shape of a monkey, together with the red and gold luxury gift box featuring a whimsical gold monkey — it’s the perfect gift for family and friends for Lunar New Year, and a perfect treat for yourself during this holiday. Plus, they taste really good! The Year of the Monkey Collection is available in GODIVA stores and online until Feb 8th or while supplies last.”

 

3. Other things you might consider to give are tangerines. In Chinese, we call tangerine as “Jin Ju”, close to the sounds of “Jing Ji”, which means gold and luck, wealth and lucky.

 

4. Flowers. When you think of giving flowers when visiting a Chinese friend or family, think daffodil, peach blossom, or any other red color flowers. I wouldn’t recommend chrysanthemum or any white color flowers, because Chinese people normally bring those flowers for Tomb-Sweeping Day (when we visit the graves of our ancestors and clean them and leave flowers) or funerals.

 

I hope you enjoyed this post as much I do, it bring some good and special memory of mine when I was in China. Maybe you will enjoy Chinese New Year a little more now that you know something about its traditions and meaning.

Special thanks to GODIVA for collaborating on this post with me. As always, all opinions are all honestly my own.