On Monday, February 8, amid celebrations around the world, the lunar year for 2016 began. Chinese New Year is something that children and adults look forward to weeks before the actual changing.  In Chinese tradition, the coming of the New Year is second in festivities only to the Moon Festival. A traditional feast is made, a positive and healthy year is wished upon the elders and gifts are given to unmarried children. While I have not attended my family’s celebration of the New Year because of school, I can vividly recall the anticipation of the evening, the events that continued into the night and the traditions that were followed every year.

First of all, if dinner was set to be at 6 in the evening, the host would have up a mahjong table for the elders to play by 1 in the afternoon.  Mahjong is a Chinese gambling “card” game that revolves around getting sets of certain cards. Whether you arrived between 1 or 5:30, there would always be fresh food on the main table and plenty of people to hug and say hello. My favorite snack was always the fried sweet taro root dessert squares.  Dinner would start at around 6 and would consist of a whole fish, a few other seafood dishes, vegetable plates and white rice.  Some may see it as a waste but the fish was never fully eaten, in fact only half of the fish was ever eaten because we were not allowed to flip the fish over.  According to legend, if the fishermen had flipped the fish over and eaten the other half, metaphorically their boat would flip over too, thus bringing bad luck upon the entire crew.  After dinner is when the fun began for kids and adults alike.

We would all gather in the living room in a circle so that everyone could watch the ceremony that was about to occur.  At the head of the circle the oldest member of the family, be them single or married, would sit and wait for the children to come forward.  The youngest child would then approach, bow, take a kneeling position in front of their elder, clasp their hands and wish them a happy, prosperous and healthy upcoming year.  In elder(s) then respond in kind and present the child with a red envelope containing any value of money.  The child then backs up and the ceremony is repeated until every unmarried person has bowed to every elder.  Traditionally the red envelopes would remain unopened and slept upon to gain luck, but as kids get older many will open them that night and forget about the envelope.

Chinese New Year is something that everyone looks forward to because of the interaction with family members, the amazing food and of course, for the kids, the money at the end of the night.