admin
Ms G
It is finally here! As you read this article, we will have been two days into the Chinese new year. Unlike the January 1 celebrations, the Chinese new year is a not a one-day carnival. Instead, it is marked by a series of events happening on different days during this festive period.
In my region in northern China, it generally begins with the Laba festival, which is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, about three weeks before the new year. On this day, many in China would have the eight-treasure congee made with various sorts of beans of seeds, such as millet, white kidney bean, lotus seed, and dates.
On the 23rd day of the month, one week before the new year, comes the minor New Year. It is the time for a thorough clean-up of the house and stocking of all the necessary food and items for the big day. People would put up spring couplets on their doorframes. These are two poetry lines written in black or golden Chinese characters on red paper to be vertically pasted on both sides of the front door and a four-character horizontal scroll affixed above the doorframe. The poem is usually about good wishes for the new year. On windowpanes and doors people would also paste a piece of red paper with the Chinese character “happiness” or “good fortune” on it; and it would be done upside down because the mandarin pronunciation for “reverse” is the same as “arrival”. So “happiness” that is upside down is happiness that has arrived.
The week following the minor New Year has a different tradition for every day until the Spring Festival comes, such as having tofu, butchering pigs and chickens, making bread, taking a good shower and washing clothes, all in anticipation of the great fun on the final day of the year.
On the big day, people would dress up and wear something red for good luck, be it a red coat or just a red belt. Red socks are a must for the perceived the power to crush bad luck under your feet. The food varies from region to region but dumplings are more frequently seen. In preparing the filling, loving mothers would also sneak a coin or a peanut in one of the many dumplings. Because whoever gets it is presumed to have good luck in the new year, mothers would secretly mark the special dumplings and “accidentally” let the kids have them.
This is the only one day during the year when kids are allowed to stay up late. In fact, they are encouraged to stay awake until midnight as per the tradition. When the clock struck 12, firecrackers will be lit off, dumplings will be boiling in the pot, and every house will be busy celebrating.
If you think that will be the end of the story, you are mistaken. Starting from the first day of the new year, more rituals will be coming. There are days for the married ladies to visit their own parents, dragon dances, and noodle-eating all the way to the 15th day of the new year when a big lantern festival marks the end of all celebrations.
Taken together, it is in fact a month-long festivity with something to look forward to almost every day. Important as it is, many in China this year have given up their family reunions due to Covid-19. And I am stuck here as well, spending God-knows-how-many Spring Festivals away from home. My only wish for the new year is for the pandemic to be over soon so that we can all better cherish and savor the things in life that make us happy—health, quality time with family, a good laugh with friends, Friday evening drinks, a nod to a stranger in the park, hugs and kisses, and simply being in a crowd.
Online Reporter