This Thursday will mark the Chinese New Year, one of the biggest holidays of the year in China.
While Americans celebrate their New Year for only one day, maybe beginning with a party on New Year’s Eve and ending at lights out on New Year’s Day, the Chinese New Year is a 15-day celebration.
The Chinese now go by the Western calendar, like the rest of the world, but they still use the Chinese calendar, which is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements, to determine the date of the Chinese New Year.
The holiday begins with the new moon on the first day, Thursday, and will end with the full moon, 15 days later.
All children born between Feb. 7, 2008, and Jan. 25, 2009, will be charming and social, but also hard working and aggressive because 2008 is the year of the rat, according to the Chinese zodiac.
There are 12 animals associated with the Chinese zodiac, which is based on a 60-year cycle. In addition to the year, Chinese astrology also assigns each person an animal based on the month they were born — their inner animal — and on the hour they were born — their secret animal.
There are many traditions and superstitions associated with the Chinese New Year. According to Greenwood residents Matthew and Cathy Mai, and Cathy’s brother, Richard Kwong, everything is centered around health and wealth.
One such superstition is that the entire house should be cleaned prior to the holiday. All cleaning supplies should then be put away on New Year’s Eve and not taken out again until after New Year’s Day. It is feared that if the floor is swept on New Year’s Day, all good fortune will be swept away.
Foul language and any sort of negative conversation, such as talking about death, should be avoided. There should also be no references made to the past year, all focus should be on the year to come.
Children are not spanked on New Year’s Day because it is believed that if someone cries that day they’ll spend the entire year crying.
Fireworks or firecrackers are often shot off on New Year’s Eve as a way to send off the old year and welcome the new.
Cathy Mai said red is the preferred color for the Chinese New Year.
“Red is a festive color,” she explained. Red is considered a happy color, and this will set the tone for the rest of the year.
While Mai was born in the United States, her brother, Kwong, was born in Hong Kong and came to the U.S. with their family at the age of 9. They said it is unusual to see large-scale Chinese New Year celebrations in the U.S., unless it is in a city with a large Asian population.
In these cities, there will normally be some form of Chinese New Year parade, often featuring an elaborate lion dance or dragon dance. The 15-day celebration ends with a lantern festival, usually a parade in which children march and carry lanterns.
In smaller towns like Greenwood, families might just share a special meal together.
“But if my mom’s around, we always celebrate,” Kwong said.
Holly Tran, another Greenwood resident, agreed that it is not as big a holiday here.
“We don’t really do much. We make a big dinner and the whole family comes and eats,” Tran said. “I haven’t celebrated a big, traditional Chinese New Year in a long time.”
Tran’s family has lived in Greenwood for about four years. Prior to that, they lived in Oklahoma City, where she said there was a much larger Asian population, and therefore, a bigger celebration.
She still follows some traditions though, like cleaning the house and buying new clothes for the holiday, and also giving lucky money to the children.
Lucky money, called lay-see, is a small red envelope containing money, which is traditionally given by married couples to their unmarried relatives — especially children — as a symbol of prosperity.
Tran is Vietnamese, but hers is one of several other Asian cultures that also recognizes the Chinese New Year, including the Koreans, Mongolians, Nepalese and Bhutanese.
In the United States, many people spend New Years away from home and go out and celebrate with friends instead of with their families, but the Chinese New Year is more of a family oriented holiday, similar to Thanksgiving or Christmas in America.
Families will usually prepare a traditional meal with various “lucky” foods. A whole fish represents togetherness, chicken represents prosperity and long noodles represent long life.
“It’s like here where people eat black-eyed peas or cabbage,” Cathy Mai said.
There also are dishes, such as seaweed and dried bean curd, that are prepared because their pronunciation sounds like the word for wealth. Fresh bean curd, or tofu, is not served, though, because it is white, which is an unlucky color, signifying death in Chinese culture.
There are several customs traditionally practiced on all of the other days of the 15-day celebration. Certain days are designated for visiting friends and relatives or staying home, and eating or abstaining from particular foods. The practices vary from region to region in China.
There may not be a big party in Greenwood, but be sure to wish all of your friends and neighbors “Kung hei fat choi” on Thursday, which means, “Congratulations and be prosperous.”
