Chinese New Year

Year of the Horse

Since it is coming up in a couple of days, I thought that my first post ought to be about Chinese New Year (also known as Lunar New Year.)

Not only does the Chinese follow the Western calendar, they also follow the Chinese calendar. Chinese New Year falls on the first day of the year, so it's usually around late mid-January to early February. This year, Chinese New Year happens to fall on Friday, January 31st.

Chinese New Year is celebrated all over the world, primarily in Asian-populated areas, like San Francisco, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore, just to name a few.

My family enjoys celebrating the New Year traditionally. Some of the New Year's traditions are:

• Eat porridge (I'm not really sure what the significance is, but everyone in the family eats porridge for a meal.)

http://www.flavorexplosions.com/blog/2009/07/jook-rice-porridge/

• Clean the house. Sweeping floors represent "sweeping away" the previous year's bad luck. (ONLY BEFORE New Year's Day. If you sweep right the first two weeks after New Year's Day, you're "sweeping away" the New Year's good luck.)

• Decorate the house with little red decorations. (Like an origami fish.)

• Eat one side of a fish. There is a saying "nian nian you yu" (年年有余), which translates to "every year, there's money." 余 (yu) was China's ancient golden nugget that was used as currency. 余 sounds like 魚 (yu), which means fish. Eating half of the fish and leaving the other side of the fish represents that there will be money coming your way in the incoming year.

• Elderly and married people giving unmarried people and children red envelopes with money in them.

http://absoluteinternship.com/blog/2013/02/happy-chinese-new-year-with-red-envelopes/

• Visiting ancestors at their graves.

• Eating with extended family.

• Watching lion dancing.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20091004_lion_dance_Hong_Kong_Kowloon_6779.jpg

• Buying and lighting small firecrackers to scare away bad spirits.

https://liachang.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/2014-is-the-year-of-the-horse-dragons-and-lions-in-the-chinese-new-year-parade/

Obviously, this isn't all of them, but this is what most people remember to do.

Midnight for the Chinese calendar is actually 11pm. As I am typing this, I am realizing that it is almost time for New Year's! Go out and celebrate some of these traditions with your friends and family!

Hello, Year of the Horse!

http://www.featurepics.com/online/New-Year-Horse-2862679.aspx

恭喜發財 Gung Hay Fat Choy!

新年快樂 Happy New Year!