Happy Lunar New Year!
Pam Chen is our Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships. In honor of Lunar New Year, she’s sharing a bit of history about the holiday and how she celebrates with her family.
About Lunar New Year
“Xin nian kuai le”
Lunar New Year is the annual festival where communities around the world celebrate the beginning of the new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar (which is based on movements of the moon and sun). It’s a time to honor relatives and loved ones who have died, and it’s also become a time to feast and to visit loved ones. Lunar New Year is centered around removing the bad and welcoming the good.
The Chinese calendar runs on a 12-year cycle with each year being represented by a zodiac animal. 2022 is the year of the Tiger! It’s believed that if you’re born in a particular year, you’ll have the characteristics of that zodiac animal. The Tiger is known for its strength, bravery, passion and fearlessness.
It’s believed that in ancient China, there was a monster who would come out on New Year's Eve and destroy and devour its communities. Villagers figured out that the monster was afraid of loud sounds, bright lights, and the color red. So every year, those who celebrate wear red clothing, hang red decorations, set off firecrackers, and organize lion or dragon dances to ward off the monster and other evil spirits. That is why today you see people wearing red on New Year's Day.
During Lunar New Year, kids receive red envelopes (hóngbāo) with money or chocolate coins inside. The importance of the hóngbāo isn't the treat inside; it's the envelope itself. The red color symbolizes good luck (fortune) and prosperity.
My family’s tradition
I immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area from Taiwan when I was seven years old. I didn’t have many Chinese friends growing up, so Lunar New Year was always a treat because we got to eat authentic Chinese food surrounded by our extended family. We’d come together with our grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins dressed up in red clothing, and feast at a restaurant in the Inner Richmond neighborhood until our stomachs hurt.
“Gong xi fa cai”
After saying the Lunar New Year greetings to each of the adults at the table, we, as kids, would receive our hóngbāo. We’d “receive” the envelopes with two hands and spend the rest of the dinner eagerly waiting to get home to open the envelope and see how much money or chocolate we got. It was such a highlight!
After dinner, we’d usually hear firecrackers or loud drumming on the streets, and we’d beg our parents to let us watch the lion dances. It was pretty amazing how these street performers would totally transform the streets, ushering in hundreds of spectators.
How I celebrate today
As we’ve all gotten older and moved out of the Bay Area, we’ve kept up the holiday traditions through FaceTime calls and making the effort to eat Chinese food on New Years. As each of our own families have grown and expanded, we’ve had fun teaching the kids about Chinese culture and our traditions, and seeing their faces light up when they receive their red envelopes.
I appreciate this holiday because it gives my family and me a chance to reconnect with each other to reflect on the past year and offer good luck and prosperity to one another. It’s a great opportunity to show our appreciation for our loved ones.