Chinese New Year: Nikki Lorenzini

This year, the Chinese New Year, the longest and most important festival in the lunar calendar, starts on February 14 and runs for 15 days. My co-worker whose from China sighed and said technically it starts on Saturday because China is 13 hours ahead of us. However, we are here so I’m celebrating Sunday. 2010 marks the year of the year of the Tiger. According Chinese Zodiac, tigers are born leaders, and they are respected for their courage. They are also unpredictable, tense, and like to be in a hurry. They have magnetic personalities, adventurous, and confident.

One of the practices for Chinese New Year are the Red Packets. When midnight sticks on New Years day, children get red packets from their parents as a blessing, which are put underneath their pillows at night when they sleep. Children also practice Guarding the night that happens on New Years Eve where they stay up at night to pray for their parents to have good health. One of the more noticeable symbols of the Chinese New Year is the Dragon Dance. Also known as the “Dragon Lantern Dance,” it originated from the Han Dynasty. It was originally done to please their ancestors and ask for enough rain for crops. There is a Chinese Fairy Tale that tells the legend and it goes:

One day, the Dragon King felt some terrible pain around his waist. After consuming all medication he could find, the pain persisted. Without any other option, he turned into human form and sought for doctor's advice. After the inspection, the doctor claimed, "You are not a human." Realizing that he couldn't pretend anymore, the Dragon King turned into his original form. The doctor helped removed a scolopendrid from his waist and applied medication on the wound. The Dragon King felt relieve immediately. In appreciation to the doctor's help, the Dragon King said this to the doctor, "Dance in gears in the form of a dragon and you shall be granted with smooth weather and great harvests." The news quickly spread and people began to dance in gears built to the form of a dragon to plead for rain in drought seasons.

As in any culture, food is also important to the Chinese during this holiday. The Chinese superstitions play a lot into their choosing of their food. Some examples of their food choices are:

Lettuce- lettuce in Chinese sounds like “making money.”
Seaweed- the special hair like seaweed sounds like ‘Get Rich.’
Bamboo Shoots- Indicates ‘New Start,’ also means ‘Advancing in Career.”
Fish- They say this is a must every New year because it indicates ‘Having leftovers.’

So this year for Chinese New Year, I hope you all have a some good wonton soup and an egg roll, and much good fortune to you all this year!

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