Chinese New Year

Elaine Shiang, 15
New York

“So...how much money am I getting this year, mommy?” is a question that I usually hit my mom with every year around February. And each year my mom always replies with the same answer in her Chinese accent, “You’ll see....” February usually marks the month of Chinese New Year, the celebration of the New Year according to the Chinese calendar. But for me, Chinese New Year was and still is a payday. Usually I receive red envelopes, in Chinese called hong bao, the equivalent of Christmas presents, only instead of wondering what kind of present, it is the amount of money inside these delicate envelopes that is uncertain. The lucky money is actually a sign of prosperity, and the envelopes are colored red to scare away evil spirits. So I would have to wait for weeks to find out what my parents had in store for me.

I never really realized the full importance of the holiday, and I never even recognized its traditions until I learned about them in a specialized Chinese School that my mom “forced” me to attend on Sunday afternoons. As part of a unit on holidays, we learned about the traditions that were behind the famous Chinese New Year. I never knew where or how the traditions originated, and I never gave them much thought at all. As selfish as it may sound, the only parts of the holiday that ever concerned me were the hong baos, and the food. I had no knowledge of how the hanging of the red papers or the firecrackers began until I learned the legend behind the origins of the Chinese New Year traditions.

There was once a beast, the nien, which also means “year,” who terrorized villages and even began feeding on people. To rid themselves of this horrible monster, the villagers observed that the beast was afraid of the color red, fire and the loud, crackling noise that bamboo made when lit. So, when winter fell upon the village, the people proceeded to hang red peach papers on their doors, banged on instruments, lit bamboo which made a crackling sound that would later give rise to the Chinese firecrackers, and set bonfires throughout the village. When the beast came, he was terrified and fled into the mountains never to return, so year after year, the villagers continued the traditions, and they remain to this day. The red color papers are hung as decorations throughout houses, and firecrackers are set off all throughout Chinese New Year. Now, celebrations for the coming year continue up until February 15th, the Lantern Festival.

Chinese New Year is a wonderful holiday not just because of the wonderful hong bao, but because of the food as well. My mom is a culinary genius; it’s like she was born in the kitchen. My favorite dishes that she makes are her dumplings, jiaoz. She puts in extra meats, and fries them her own special way; I love them so much my record for the most dumplings that I’ve ever eaten totals to somewhere around 30. And around Chinese New Year, my mom makes dish after dish of Chinese food, dumplings included. We also have a special kind of dinner involving a small electrical pot, which is like a portable stove: narrow at the bottom, with a large opening, also known as huo guo. Food is cooked right in front of us in this small pot while we all are eating. The only things needed to cook are the pot itself, electricity, and water to boil inside. It’s like a portable stove only in the shape of a pot. My mom makes a special sauce to go along with the cooked food, and she usually throws in some quail eggs as a delicacy. Traditional family feasts also include various cakes, most commonly rice cakes made of glutinous rice flour. Sweet treats symbolize good luck. I eat until my stomach is stuffed full, unable to digest anymore.

I had a general idea of the traditions, but I never knew where they came from nor did I ever understand the importance of the color red until I learned about the legend of the beast, nien. Just as long as I got my hong bao, I was a happy camper. But the excitement that comes along with anticipating the coming of New Year is one that I will never grow tired of. While the real celebrations are taking place overseas in China and Taiwan, our family holds its own traditions that we keep every year. My mom always makes us scour our rooms every year before New Year’s, and I can always count on my mom to make her same delicious foods every year. There is a comfort in knowing that as my sisters and I open our hong bao, our cousins so many miles away are doing the same.

Shing nien kwai le, gong xi fa cai.*

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