Away from home, welcoming a new year: NewsCenter

January 26, 2017

On January 28, the Year of the Monkey gives way to the Year of the Rooster. Some of our students of Chinese descent tell us what makes the celebration of the Lunar New Year special for them, their family, and the region where their families live.

Thanks to these students for sharing their experiences with us:
Richard Kao ’19, Kaili Chen ’20, Christina Zhang ’18, Randy Wang ’20 and Bingying Liu ’18. Happy New Year!

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Joy Bian ’17 is specializing in digital media and business studios.

According to the Chinese calendar, a lunar calendar with a 12-year animal zodiac cycle, 2017 begins this weekend. At midnight, as the Gregorian calendar passes on January 28, China will welcome the Year of the Rooster, replacing the Monkey, the 2016 zodiac.

Thinking about the celebrations back home, I texted my friend, “Remember to wear red.” The color red symbolizes luck, fortune, and happiness in China, so it is common to see people wearing red bracelets, scarves, and coats at the beginning of the New Year. “Rooster babies” (born in the year of the rooster) usually dress in red for their parents to avoid bad luck next year. Although many people consider these gestures superstitious, they are still widely observed as traditions that have been passed down through generations.

The holidays are bittersweet for me and for many other Chinese students studying in the United States.

“I haven’t celebrated Chinese New Year with my family since I came to study in the United States,” said Shuyu Zhou ’17, a Beijing math and economics specialist. “I’m always full of homework when the Chinese New Year arrives.”

For many Chinese, Christmas, which falls during the winter holidays, is an exotic festival when families get together and get together. We celebrate it in my family, but the exchange of gifts is more voluntary than essential and is not as popular as it is in the United States. My family understands my school calendar a lot, so during Christmas we had a huge family reunion. While it wasn’t the same as everyone gathering on New Year’s Eve, it helped make up for the lack of the big celebration at home.

In China, people receive seven days of vacation to spend the holidays with their families and prepare for a new year.

There are many ways to celebrate the holiday. The choice of food always varies from one region to another. I was born and raised in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, a city of about 4.5 million people in eastern China. Although the northern Chinese make balls on New Year’s Eve, I make spring rolls and sesame rice balls with my parents. This is the only time of year I have the opportunity to showcase my natural cooking talent. I love spring rolls stuffed with red bean puree, but my dad isn’t a big fan of sweets. Usually fill the rolls with finely chopped nappa cabbage and ground meat. I fry the rolls until the skin turns golden.

Gather and prepare all the ingredients for the night of the party lasts an entire day. Grocery shopping should be done at noon on New Year’s Eve, as shops and public markets close in the afternoon. It is not uncommon not to see anyone on the streets. Everyone is at home.

Fish is always my family’s traditional dish. The word “fish” in Mandarin sounds like the word “surplus.” My mother likes the auspicious message that fish bring fortune, plentiful food and luck over the next year.

As a dessert, my family always goes with Eight Treasure Rice. It consists of sticky rice, candied and candied fruits, ginger, plums and dates. The dessert takes its name from a legend in which eight warriors fought a despotic emperor.

New Year’s Eve is the only night of the year that my dad wakes up late. He makes firecrackers at midnight outside the house to say goodbye to the old year and hug him with a loud bang. There are three times during the 15-year celebration of the New Year that my family lights firecrackers: the first, fifth, and seventh days. Many families who do business or business explode firecrackers on the fifth day because it is believed that the Chinese god of fortune would visit him. My uncle had a flower shop. I witnessed the annual firecracker show in front of his store when I was little. The noise was so loud, as it was supposed to be, that it always covered my ears.

If I’m about to take out the trash, my mom will stop me. “No! Don’t leave the trash today,” she says. This is a tradition passed down for years to my family: never throw anything away on the first day of New Year because fortune is considered to flow.

My mother is the only person in my family who knows all kinds of New Year’s taboos, traditions and customs. “My mom taught me well,” she always says.

Although I am not taught all the rules, I am an enthusiastic observer and have learned a lot over the years. Things like porridge or frozen for breakfast or no laundry on the first day. They may seem like fun to people who have never heard of them, but all cultures have traditions that are passed down from older generations to younger ones.

While traditions continue, they are also transformed in various ways to suit our modern life. Children are the happiest group on the first day of New Year when they receive red envelopes from their parents. I used to discover two red envelopes under my pillow when I woke up in the morning. The so-called “lucky money” is given to them by their parents to send love, blessings and happiness. In 2013, WeChat, a China-based social mobile app company, launched an online money transfer program that allows people to send virtual red envelopes. It has become so popular that it has become a modern way to greet people during the New Year. We give red envelopes not only to the children, but we also send them to our friends and family.

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Category: Student life