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Happy New Year!
Congratulations and be prosperous!
Cantonese: Gung hay
fat choy!
Korean: Sae hae bok ma ni pa du se yo!
Mandarin: Gong xi fa cai!
Vietnamese: Chuc mung nam moi!
by Maria Ng and Ja Young
The Lunar New Year is an important annual celebration for
more than a quarter of the world’s population. Each year,
the Lunar New Year falls on a different day according to the
Western (Gregorian) calendar. This is because the Western
calendar is based on solar, not lunar, movements. Each Lunar
Year is associated with a specific animal for a cycle of
twelve animals. This year, the
Lunar New Year will fall on January 23, 2012. For China and
the countries which also use the same animals, it is the beginning of the Year of the
Dragon and the end of
the Year of the Rabbit in China and Korea and the Cat in
Vietnam. The Vietnamese zodiac uses the same animals as the
Chinese zodiac for the remaining 11 years, though the ox or
cow of the Chinese is considered the water buffalo in the
Vietnamese.
This year it falls on the first day of classes which is
horrible for Stony Brook students, many of whom will not be
able to spend it with their families, but not as bad as last
year when it fell on the third day. At least this year, many students who live
in or near NYC can be home Sunday night and come to campus on Monday. In 2010 it fell on Valentine's Day
which was also a Sunday, which was also better for LI / metro NY
students who were able to go home.
Like American Thanksgiving and Christmas combined, the Lunar New Year is when
families all come together for a magnificent feast, and
for many countries, midnight on the eve of the New Year is celebrated together
with firecrackers and red envelopes containing money are given out as gifts by
parents and grandparents. International students join together to make
a temporary family and Chapin, Schomberg, and West are
filled with heavenly aromas. This year the Confucius
Institute will have a dinner on New Year's Day in the Wang Center.
Hopefully in future years, given the size of the
population at SB who celebrate the Lunar New Year, the
academic calendar will take it into account.
SB China alumni on the other hand, have a long vacation.
Business virtually shuts down for up to ten days as everyone returns to their
native homes. The transportation systems are packed to
capacity. It is considered the largest migration of people
in the world.
The Lunar New Year is
associated with many traditions. It is a time dedicated to
family. Traditionally, the New Year was highlighted with a
religious ceremony that honored the gods and the family’s
ancestors. The Lunar New Year lasts for fifteen days. The
celebration begins on New Year’s Eve with the onset of the
new moon, and ends with the Festival of the Lanterns fifteen
days later when the full moon appears.
Preparations for the New Year
may begin weeks before the actual day. The Lunar New Year is
a time of renewal. There are many traditions and rituals
associated with this important holiday. However, they all
center upon the central themes of liveliness, prosperity,
good luck and happiness. Superstitions are followed so that
the family may have a happy and prosperous year.
In their preparations for the
New Year, families will clean their houses from top to
bottom. The expulsion of dirt symbolizes the expulsion of
bad luck. Families will also decorate the house with paper
scrolls and couplets. Each scroll is engraved with blessings
and wishes for happiness, wealth, and longevity. Figures of
children in traditional Asian garments are hung in doorways.
They are seen as the personification of “good luck.” In some places, the practice of shopping for the perfect
plum tree is not dissimilar to the Western tradition of
buying a Christmas tree.
These preparations lead up to
the beginning of the New Year which begins not on New Years
Day but on New Year’s Eve. On the night of New Year’s Eve,
families gather together to eat a large feast, traditionally
including a whole fish and in the northern half of China,
dumplings. The food that is chosen has
a specific significance. Like the decorations, they
symbolize prosperity, good luck, longevity and happiness.
After the feast, the family will stay up to play games and
talk until midnight. At the stroke of twelve, fireworks are
set off to bring in the New Year.
Freshmen Chinese international student May Wang wrote a
great article on how her family celebrates the New Year and
she even includes recipes of foods she (in the US) and her
mother and stepfather (in Qingdao) made to take photos of
just for the article. And Noah Kim wrote about Korea
and Chenjun Feng wrote about Vietnam.
Check them out!
Each zodiac animal represents different human personality
traits. Dragons are the free spirits of the Zodiac.
Uninhibited. Non-conformists. Rules and regulations are not
for them. Restrict them and you blow out their creative
spark. Dragons are beautiful people, colorful, flamboyant,
extroverted, energetic, generous, gifted and irrepressible,
but also solitary and self-sufficient. Dragons do everything
on a grand scale. But it's not acting or for show. It's
their nature. They are confident, fearless, almost
inevitably successful. Dragons are leaders. Parents try to
have their children born dragons.
Wikipedia describes the legend behind how much of the Lunar
New Year is celebrated in China.
"According to tales and
legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year
started with the fight against a mythical
beast called the Nian or "Year" in Chinese.
Nian would come on the first day of New Year
to devour livestock, crops, and even
villagers, especially children. To protect
themselves, the villagers would put food in
front of their doors at the beginning of
every year. It was believed that after the
Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t
attack any more people. One time, people saw
that the Nian was scared away by a little
child wearing red. The villagers then
understood that the Nian was afraid of the
color red. Hence, every time when the New
Year was about to come, the villagers would
hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on
windows and doors. People also used
firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From
then on, the Nian never came to the village
again. The Nian was eventually captured by
Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The
Nian becaume Laozu's mount."
The Lunar
New Year is a highly anticipated annual holiday. Many Asian
and Asian American organizations sponsor events to celebrate
this important day. In Chinatowns across America there are
parades with lion and dragon dancers and
firecracker ceremonies. The
weekends around the holiday in NYC's
Chinatown and Flushing will have lots of
activities.
Wikipedia:
Chinese New Year
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year
Korean New Year / Seolnal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_New_Year
Vietnamese New Year / Tet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_New_Year
Celebrated 1/1
Japanese New Year
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_New_Year
Celebrated different times each year
Tibetan New Year / Losar - 1/22/2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_New_Year
Celebrated April 13 -15
Thai New Year / Songkran
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_New_Year
Wikipedia has something on every country at
New Year's Eve
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Eve
New Year's Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Day
Everything you ever wanted to know about the
dragon and then some!
http://www.usbridalguide.com/special/chinesehoroscopes/Dragon.htm
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