Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year period ended this week.  The New Year starts on the 2^nd lunar month following the winter solstice and lasts for 15 days.  The celebration begins on New Year eve and ends with the lantern festival.  It is the most important holiday of the year for Chinese and many businesses, schools and government agencies close for at least a week, often for the full 15 days or more.   Chinese working away from home will typically return to spend the holiday with their family.  The year of the dragon was welcomed on January 23 and the celebration ended February 6.

There are several historical references to the holiday’s origin and meaning, but the most common belief is a welcoming of spring after the end of winter.  New Year day occurs between late January and Mid-February. Homes and businesses are typically cleaned to rid the buildings of bad luck and make room for good luck.  A lion dance troupe is often invited into a home or business.  We witnessed a series of business have the troupe, dressed in Dragon costumes and accompanied with  a percussion band, enter through the front door and exit through the back.  A red envelope of money is given by the business to the troupe to promote good luck and prosperity.  I referred to it as extortion and was told the businesses are very happy to do it.

Red envelopes of money are given by the married members of a family or close group of friends, to the unmarried (typically children and teenagers) people.  Red is a favorite color in China and wards off evil.  In Chinese countries that do not have a one child birth policy, such as Taiwan, a family with numerous uncles, aunts, grandparents, parents, etc. means a child will likely receive a significant amount of money.

The Chinese people have a New Year eve dinner of fish and numerous other dishes, usually with family and close friends.  At midnight they eat the traditional jiaozi (dumplings), which represents wealth.  Our neighbor had a New Year eve dinner for family and close friends, however we were returning from Japan that night and couldn’t attend.  The next day is a day to remain home and be lazy, and we had a meal with our neighbor and his family.  On the second day, daughters return to their birth families.  In Chinese culture, daughters and not considered part of the birth family, but rather obtain a family when they marry into the husband’s family.  This is practiced by older and traditional Chinese, however is not part of modern Taiwan’s mainstream thinking.  We traveled to China to be with my wife’s family for 8 days.

Everywhere in the Chinese world, decorations adorn parks and buildings.  Most parts have large dragons and numerous lanterns are hung-there are often many lanterns even during non-holiday periods.  The holiday ends with the lantern festival, which are attended by millions of people.  In Taiwan, one city each year is selected for the country’s lantern festival and our city was selected last year.  Major cities have a smaller scale festival.  A traditional sweet, sticky rice cake is served during this time. Thousands of unmanned hot air balloons are released during the lantern festival.  People write their wishes on a piece of paper, attach it to the lantern, and send it to the heavens. In Taiwan, only one city is allowed to release lanterns, I assume for fire protection reasons (city is near coast).  As a child, I made a hot air balloon out of a dry cleaning bag, kite sticks and birthday candles.  I attached a kite string to it and it quickly soar the full length of the string.  I wasn’t satisfied with this, so I let go of the string and watched it disappear into the night sky.  Afterwards I gave thought about burning candles landing in some dry grass and for the next 24 hours, I watched the local news intently, expecting to hear about some devastating grass fire that I started.

Throughout the holiday fireworks and firecrackers are prevalent, more common than the 4^th of July in the U.S.  There are different stories about the meaning of the firecrackers, though they are often viewed as bombing certain gods for good and bad reasons.

People will schedule their life events based on the lunar calendar, marrying on good days and avoiding unlucky ones.  The dragon in considered good by the Chinese and many things will be planned for this year.  The tiger is considered bad, so births are fewer during the year of the tiger.  This actually has unintended favorable consequences, as a low birth rate year means it is easier for teens to get accepted to the best schools.