Happy New Year / 新年快乐!
To jumpstart the Year of the Rabbit, we’ve asked some of our staff members to share their thoughts and memories of their Lunar New Year experiences. Hope you enjoy!
First, a word from our Director, S. Alice Mong:
Hearty welcome to the Year of the Rabbit!
I have been eagerly anticipating today –first day of the Lunar New Year for quite some time now as Year of the Tiger has been full of too many ups and downs and I was happy to see its passing. We just got done with a hearty New Year office lunch of noodles (signifying longevity), nian gao (made of glutinous rice which sounds like another year higher or taller), dumplings and green vegetables. I passed out my traditional lai-see/hong bao (red packet with money) to the unmarried staff to wish them a happy new year. The food and hong bao all brought back wonderful memories of Chinese New year the way we use to celebrate in Taiwan before we immigrated to the US. I explained Chinese New Year to those not familiar with it as a combination of Easter (we deck out in our new cloth), Thanksgiving (big family feast—usually at Lunar New Year’s Eve), Christmas (instead of presents, we get the lai see (in Cantonese)/hong bao (in Mandarin) –with so many aunts and uncles, we kids generally start off the New Year in a very prosperous way) and of course, it’s also like Fourth of July with its firecracker and fireworks (less so these days due to fire regulations).
Filed under: Lunar New Year, MOCA, Dumplings, Family, Flower Market, Gong Hay Fat Choy, Hong Bao, Lai See, Lion Dance, Lunar New Year, Recollections, Traditions
