034 Happy Chinese New Year | Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Chinese New Year is easily one of my favorite times of the year. It's like the Chinese version of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's rolled into one. We visit with family, get money, play with fireworks, eat shamelessly, AND get to watch lion dances. There are so many fun parts about our culture and tradition, so I thought I'd write a brief post to share some cool practices that my family and I participate in.

It's probably worth mentioning that my family is Malaysian Chinese, meaning some of our beliefs and traditions are a little different than what is practiced in Mainland China. That being said, practices often vary between states and cities and families as well, so what you read here may not apply to every Chinese person you know. There are like, a billion of us, so it's typically pretty hard to make generalizations about my people anyway, hoho.

So, here are some of the beliefs and practices that my family partakes in...

2014 is the Year of the Horse.

The Chinese Zodiac is a 12 year cycle that relates each year to an animal. Each animal has its own distinct attributes and personality traits, and according to Chinese beliefs, individuals tend to display the same characteristics as their zodiac animal. I'm not sure how much of this is true, and how much of it is reliant on Barnum statements, but I've always enjoyed learning about my animal, the dragon.

According to legend, the order of the Zodiac animals was determined by a legendary race. The following chart shows the different animals present in the Chinese Zodiac, and the years associated with each one. You can learn more about your Zodiac animal here, including information on your Zodiac animal's characteristics, your fortune in love and money, and even relationship advice (some Zodiac animals are supposed to pair better with others).

Photo credit to Molly the Wally.

Cleaning the house before the first day of Chinese New Year. 

As with most other cultures, we like to usher in the New Year with a clean house. The goal (key word here is "goal" lol) is to clean as much as possible, meaning we sweep, mop, dust, wipe down, rearrange, clean, and scrub all we can. This is important as you aren't allowed to do any form of cleaning on the first day of Chinese New Year. In fact, all brooms, mops, dusters, etc. are actually supposed to be kept away from sight as the belief is that any cleaning done on the first day will "sweep away" your good fortune for the year. It's intense.

This year, I divided the housecleaning over a few days, learning from last year's mistake (12 straight hours of cleaning in one day). The biggest change I made to my apartment was rearranging my bookcases in the living room - think they turned out pretty sweet. 

Thanks, Pinterest!

Part of the cleaning the house process also includes making sure all of the containers with your food staples are full. This symbolizes that you will not have to worry about having enough to eat throughout the year. For the Chinese, our food staples include items like rice, flour, sugar, and salt. My mom made me go to Walmart to take care of this.

Yep.

Reunion Dinner is held on Chinese New Year's Eve.

This is the one non-negotiable time a year when the family gets together to eat. It is usually held with extended family (a little easier to coordinate in Malaysia where Chinese New Year is a bigger deal and is a national holiday), but because we live in the US and Chinese New Year's Eve fell on a Thursday this year, it was just the immediate family. 

The New Year's Eve dinner is usually a pretty grandiose affair, again to symbolize the abundance of food for the year, and traditionally includes chicken, pork, and fish. And apparently sushi. Idk you'll have to ask my mom.

Delicious dinner courtesy of mom.

Each dish symbolizes something different, but my favorite is with regards to the fish dish. The dish is served for dinner, but intentionally left unfinished, with the remaining stored overnight. This stems from a Chinese pun, 年年有鱼/余 (nián nián yǒu yú/yú). The Chinese words for fish  (鱼, yú) and profit (余, yú) are homophones, making the phrase mean "every year there is fish/profit".

More family, more eating! :D

Wearing red for Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year Day is the biggest deal out of the 15 day celebration (that's right - we party for 15 days). One of the major practices of this day is wearing brand new everything, and incorporating red somewhere in your outfit.

There are a few variations of the story behind why we wear red, but I'll share the one that my parents told me growing up. In ancient times, there used to be a terrible monster, Nian, that would emerge from his cave every New Year's Day and terrorize a nearby village. Nian would destroy everything in sight, eating villagers and livestock. One day an old traveler passed by the village on New Year's Eve and heard about the terror Nian was causing. He told the villagers he would face the monster and vanquish him for them. The next day, the villagers gathered at the edge of the village to watch the old man face Nian. Once Nian emerged from his cave, the old man took off his robe to reveal a bright red shirt and pants. This terrified Nian and he ran away never to return. The villagers cheered for the old man, and from then on began wearing red on New Year's Day. They also hung red lanterns and red banners outside their homes, a tradition that is carried on until today.

You can't really tell, but I promise we're all wearing red! 

Visiting family and friends, getting red packets, and eating entirely too much.

You are supposed to visit with family and friends on the 1st and 2nd day of Chinese New Year. For my family that means traveling to Oklahoma City to visit with my uncles' families. My Aunt Shirley makes the most amazing food ever, and always pulls out all the stops for family gatherings, so we were super excited. We made it to OKC on Saturday evening and basically went straight into eating. Below are some of the dishes from our dinner. Each dish has its own symbolism, which I won't bore you with - but you can learn more about it here!

Fried oysters, fried squid, dumplings, shrimp, rendang, chicken,
and yeesang.

Buddha's Delight. Yep - that's hair. Jk it's algae.

Fish curry like back in Malaysia.

Char siu bao, or BBQ steamed buns - MY FAVORITE.
I stole like, 4 of these.

Fish cakes.

Ang ku kuih, or red tortoise cakes.

More Asian cakes! 

One of my favorite parts of Chinese New Year is tossing yeesang! Yeesang is a Teochew-style raw fish salad, made up of raw fish (commonly salmon), shredded vegetables, and a variety of sauces and condiments. It probably goes without saying that there's some old Chinese pun and a crazy amount of symbolism that goes with this dish too. The Chinese words for raw fish (鱼生, yú shēng) are a homophone for an increase in abundance (余升, yú shēng), so yeesang is commonly seen as a symbol for prosperity and growth through the year.

Pretty.

Typically, the "leaders" of the diners will say some good wishes for the year (in my family's case, my uncles and dad), and then everyone will toss the ingredients with chopsticks. It is believed that the height of the toss reflects the height of the tosser's growth in fortunes. 

Seriously super fun.

After tossing the yeesang, my whole family and some family friends settled into a 6 hour eating session basically snacking and talking all night long. It was awesome. 

Adults!

Me, my sister, my mom.

My dad and uncles hanging out.

Families also typically exchange red packets (红包, hóng bāo) for the kids. These red packets contain money, which are to symbolize wealth throughout the year. You usually get one as long as you're unmarried. Kids will typically wish their elders well, saying things like Happy New Year (新年快乐, xīn nián kuài lè), or Wishing You Happiness and Prosperity (恭喜发财, gōng xǐ fā cái) and receive money in return. It's a pretty sweet gig. 

Envelopes of awesome. Photo credit to Melsong.

And that's all for now. After we had our fill of food and visiting, we returned to Arkansas on Sunday. In a snow storm. 

Took us 7 hours to drive a 3-1/2 hour journey. D:

But we are alive and well! Hope you enjoyed the post, and learned something new about Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai! :)