BY ESA CHEN ‘25
Lunar New Year, also known as Spring Festival, is the most important and widely celebrated festival in Asia. People in countries such China, Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, etc all celebrate the Lunar New Year but in different ways. The Lunar New Year festival begins on the last day of the lunar year and ends with the Lantern Festival, which is the 15th day of the first lunar month in the following year. Because it is based on the lunar calendar, the date of Lunar New Year on the Gregorian calendar varies. The tradition of celebrating Lunar New Year is very old and its significance is rooted in several several myths. Chinese legend spoke of the wild beast Nien, which is the word for “year” in Mandarin, that appeared at the end of each year, attacking and killing villagers. Loud noises and bright lights were used to scare the beast away, which then became the New Year celebrations. The Korean New Year is also known as Seollal. The earliest records of Seollal are excerpts of celebrations during new year’s day in the Silla kingdom, which are included in the Chinese 7th-century history works: Book of Sui and Book of Tang. The Vietnamese Lunar New Year is known as Tết, a shortening of Tết Nguyên Đán. According to the historical archaeological relics, the celebration of Tết can be traced back to the early Vietnamese settlements in Red RIver Delta, when Tết meant a new cycle of wet rice cultivation.
On the last day of the lunar year, family members gather together and have a New Year’s Eve dinner, which is also known as reunion dinner. Elaborate meals with a large number of dishes are shared and it is an occasion for family members to catch up on each other’s life. Different places have unique dishes that are served at reunion dinners. In Taiwan, there must be one dish with a whole fish on New Year’s Eve dinner. Usually, this dish is never consumed in its entirety because the word ‘fish’ and ‘surplus’ are homophones in Mandarin (yú). We call it “Nián nián you yú,” which means “May there be a surplus year after year.” Nian Gao, also known as sticky rice cake, is one of the must-have foods of the Lunar New Year celebration since it has the symbolism of increasing prosperity every year. In addition to reunion dinners, family’s also thoroughly clean their homes on New Year’s Eve. Cleaning is meant to symbolically get rid of the old and usher in the new.
At reunion dinners, it is not uncommon for children and unmarried adults who are not employed to receive monetary gifts in red envelopes. Adults who are single and employed a job, are expected to give a gift to younger members of their families. However, not all communities practice giving monetary gifts. But, the rules or norms of giving red envelopes vary in different areas and countries. One of the traditions is to pay New Year’s call, which means people say special phrases to wish other people good luck when they go on visits and wear new clothing in red color, which denotes good luck, fortune, happiness, and love. Another famous tradition is to paste the Spring couplet, which are a pair of poetic lines vertically pasted on both sides of the door, written in black ink on red paper. Sometimes, there will also be a horizontal pasted Spring couple on top of the door.
The Lunar New Year celebrations of 2023 began on January 22nd and lasted until February 5. According to Chinese tradition, 2023 is the year of the Rabbit.
