This Friday, February 12, 2021, is the first day of the Lunar New Year, aka Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. I prefer to call it Lunar New Year as opposed to Chinese New Year because many different cultures celebrate this holiday, including but not limited to Vietnamese and Korean cultures. The date of the Lunar New Year is different every year because it is based on the Lunisolar calendar. As the New York Times explains, “A solar year—the time it takes Earth to orbit the sun—lasts around 365 days, while a lunar year, or 12 full cycles of the Moon, is roughly 354 days.”
Growing up in a Chinese-American household, I learned about many traditions and superstitions related to celebrating Lunar New Year. Here are a few of them:
Superstitions
- Cleaning! Always clean up the house before the start of the New Year. It is a good way to bid farewell to last year and welcome the New Year with a fresh start.
- Don’t cut or wash your hair during the New Year. You are washing your good fortune away.
Traditions
- New Year’s Eve Dinner “Reunion” Dinner – A dinner with the entire family that kicks starts the celebration. There are many traditional and meaningful dishes served at the reunion dinner including a steam whole fish. Fish “yu” sounds like the Chinese word for “wish” and “abundance.” Serving fish at the reunion dinner symbolizes “wish” and “abundance,” for the New Year.
Due to Covid-19, Lunar New Year will look a bit different this year. To keep the family safe, instead of visiting my parents and enjoying a wonderful home-cooked meal of traditional Chinese New Year cuisine, we will stop by to wish my parents “Gong hei fat choy,” which translates to “wishing you great happiness and prosperity.” Just a brief hello, so that the children can say “hi“ and receive red envelopes with “lucky money.”
At home, I will try my best to carry on some traditions including cooking the reunion dinner and of course, the lucky money for the children. While my cooking is as good as my mom’s, I am hoping that my children will have some fond memories of celebrating New Year with the family. I also plan to read a few children’s books about Lunar New Year and teaching the children about the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac. We are wrapping up the Year of the Rat in 2020 and starting the Year of the Ox in 2021.