Celebrating Chinese New Year

Whether you have friends that are Chinese or simply enjoy getting involved in the customs of other cultures from around the world, Chinese New Year is becoming a popular celebration to get involved with.  Many cities around the world that have a Chinatown will have organised New Year celebrations but the essence of the holiday is getting together with friends and family so this can be done on a smaller level in your own home.

Basics

Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival and isn’t a single day as the New Year here is in the UK but a fifteen day long celebration that begins with the preparations in the old year and goes through for days afterwards.  The date is defined by a combination of the solar and lunar calendar and a series of complicated astronomical calculations – in 2016, the result is that it is on Monday 8^th February.  The occasion is also celebrated in parts of south-east Asia including Vietnam where is it called Tet, Malaysia and Taiwan. 

One of the big parts of celebrating Chinese New Year isn’t as much fun as the food and fireworks – the cleaning of the house.  Chinese believe it is important to give the house a good clean before the event, a little like our spring clean.  This cleans away any bad luck accumulated over the previous year.  Decorations are then put up with red being a central theme as it is considered lucky.  Paper cut decorations are popular as the tradition dates back to ancient Han times in China.

Food traditions

In northern China, dumplings are a central part of the New Year traditions.  A fish dish is also considered important to serve for the New Year’s Eve Dinner, where all the family and friends gather together.  Just like our New Year, every stays up until midnight for the fireworks.

New Year Cake is made from glutinous flour with sugar and is a popular dish to serve on the occasion for those from the east of China.  Tang Yuan is also made with glutinous rice flour, mixed with water and made into small balls.  These are served in boiling water and can be filled or left unfilled.  It is often associated with the Lantern Festival, on the 15^th of the first month of the New Year.

A Tray of Togetherness is another food tradition – it is an octagon shaped tray that has eight compartments and each is filled with symbolic foods.  These might be things like lotus seeds and lychee nuts that give a sweet start to the year.  Everyone takes a little from the compartments as part of the celebration.

Gift traditions

Red again features in traditional gifts to celebrate the occasion, with small red packets called leisee being given to children.  They have gold symbols on them and are filled with ‘lucky money’.  Of course if your guests aren’t Chinese, then you could opt for a personalised gift to celebrate the New Year, such as a glass with the event and year on it.