Lunar New Year: How Chinese people celebrate Year of the Tiger

AUSTIN, Texas - Lunar New Year kicks off on February 1. It's the Year of the TIger and celebrations last for 15 days. The holiday's dates are based on the lunar calendar and is celebrated by cultures across Asia in a number of different ways. Amy Wong Mok, President/CEO of the Asian American Cultural Center, shares how some Chinese people, specifically those who speak Cantonese, traditionally celebrate.

HIGHLIGHTS OF HOW LUNAR NEW YEAR IS CELEBRATED

Traditionally on the eve before the first day of the new year, families gather together for a big dinner. The number of dishes served is nine, because Mok says it means you have lasting prosperity and lasting relationships, and features specific foods which are described later in this article.

On the first day of the new year, Mok says traditionally people go vegetarian and jokes that it's to give animals a break. She says people also don't use knives or any sharp objects on the first day to remind people to not be violent and do no harm.

The second day, traditionally, Cantonese business people "Hoi nin" in which they ask to be blessed with good luck and prosperity in business for the year.

The third day is a day when families stay home and don't visit anyone to avoid conflict. It's believed that if you fight or quarrel with someone on the third day than you will be fighting with them for the rest of the new year. Mok puts it that "we celebrate for a few days, and we get tired and when we get tired we get short-tempered" so she calls it basically a day of rest after all the action leading into the new year and for the first day.

The fourth day is when business traditionally returns to normal.

The seventh day is considered everybody's birthday. Mok says in the past not everyone had a birth certificate, so a day was picked as everybody's birthday so even if you didn't know when your birthday is, you could still celebrate.

The last day of the new year is the Lantern Festival. Mok says in the old days people gathered to go look at lanterns, so it was like a community celebration. She says it was a time when men would go out to meet the women and that's how it also became considered like Chinese Valentine's Day.

TRADITIONAL FOODS

Koreans, Vietnamese, Malaysians, and others have their own unique foods they eat for the new year that can be different from Cantonese Chinese people. Mok says examples include Vietnamese people eating items like sticky rice and northern Chinese people eating dumplings.

Looking like gold is a similar reason Mok says people like to fry items. Cantonese people will sometimes eat ‘yau gok’ which is like a crispy pastry.

Cantonese people also use glutinous rice flour to make different items and Mok says it's because the foods stick together, so it conveys harmony and coziness. Those items include ‘nian gou’ which is like a cake.

The symbolism and meaning of the food are the main reasons for choosing what to eat during the new year if you're Cantonese. 

Mok says fish is an item important to eat because the Cantonese word for fish sounds similar to the word for surplus and so having fish means you have a surplus and that manes you will have always enough for the new year.

Other items include: 

• Noodles for longevity
• Shrimp which in Cantonese sounds like the sound you make when you laugh, ha.
• Fat choy which is a vegetable that looks like black hair. The name sounds similar to making money or wealth.
• Foo jook is dried bean curd and it sounds like saying you have more than enough wealth
• Scallops. Mok says this is usually for children who just got married because the Cantonese word sounds like big son. It's eaten in the hopes of "bringing in a son" for the new year.
• Chicken for prosperity
• Apples and oranges

LUNAR NEW YEAR TRADITIONS

Leading up to the new year, Cantonese people usually do a few things to prepare including getting a haircut, sweeping the house to get rid of all the negative stuff, buying something new to wear for the new year

One of the big things that are given during the new year are lucky money red envelopes. The envelopes are traditionally given by grandparents, parents, and bosses from work. Single people are traditionally not supposed to give red envelopes. Mok says being able to give red envelopes is like a status. "You have the blessings, you have the fortune, the more you share we believe the more you will be blessed." 

When visiting people for the first time during or after the new year, you should always bring over something. Traditionally it's apples and oranges and there should be six, eight, or nine.

Another thing Mok says people do is play mahjong because she says it brings people together and is a boisterous, happy game that is great for the new year.

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