On New Year’s Eve, you probably lit up a firework if not a firecracker. You blew horns or banged on objects to create noise.
You danced or jumped with glee when the clock struck at 12 midnight. After that, you and your family while the night away with a sumptuous meal and special drinks or wine. The following day, your holiday gift-giving continued by giving out cash and whatever available gifts left on the Christmas tree to visiting children and relatives. You wore your best, most probably, with dots design. Typically, that’s how Filipinos celebrate the New Year.
And if you think that that’s something special and uniquely Filipinos, think again.
The Chinese have, more or less, similar celebration. But history books attest that the Filipinos’ celebration is a carryover of the Chinese’s who have lived among our ancestors even before the Spaniard’s invasion of the Philippines.
Aside from China, Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Mauritius, and also in Europe, Australia, New Zeeland, America, Canada, where there are areas with a big Chinese community.
Festive Celebration
Chinese New Year’s Eve usually starts with ancestor worship. The Chinese believe that deceased ancestors continue their existence in some form in order to look after the family and influence the living world in mystical ways. Incense candles are used while the Chinese chant prayer to communicate and send greetings to the deceased and to gods.
Family dinner—a reunion dinner—immediately follows. This important dinner is similar to Thanksgiving in the U.S. in a lot of ways. Like all other festivities, CNY has become highly commercialized with hotels, restaurants and many establishments offering dinner and other packages. Traditional Chinese, to these days, still gather together to eat New Year’s Eve dinner at home instead of a restaurant.
Foods are chosen for their lucky sounding names or auspicious shapes. In China, meals differ from region to region, but most include eight (an auspicious number) courses of a meat-heavy lineup along with a whole fish deliberately served late and not finished symbolizing the coming year to be filled with surplus and abundance.
Some other traditional food and lucky dishes for the Chinese include the dumplings, noodles, a vegetarian dish called Buddha’s Delight, Glutinous Rice Cakes and Mandarin Oranges (also called kiat-kiat).
Fireworks are used to drive away the evil in China. Right after 12:00PM on New Year’s Eve, fireworks will be launched to celebrate the coming of the New Year as well as to drive away the evil. Most major cities, including Shanghai and HongKong, put up an impressive display of fireworks around midnight to welcome the New Year.
Family members stay awake together during the transition from year to year during midnight with the belief that it increases the longevity of aging family members. In the past, this practice called Shou Sui was done by huddling around the stove. In today’s generation, it takes place while watching the Chinese New Year Party on CCTV (China Central Television).
Therefore, what used to be a war against a monstrous creature is now celebrated globally with the famed lion dance and fireworks. According to tales and legends, Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast, called Nian, which looked like an ox with the head of a lion. At New Year’s Eve, the beast would come out of the sea to harm people, their animals and properties. Eventually, the Chinese discovered that the beast feared the color red, fire, and loud sounds. From then on, people use red decorations and fireworks to drive away Nian.
The celebration is also called Guo Nian with “Guo Nian Hao” as one of the most used greetings which means “Happy New Year”. Nian is also the Chinese word for year.
Lion and dragon dances
These colorful dances, said to bring good luck, is performed outdoors to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals, usually on a street parade.
The lion dance, performed by just two dancers, is the more common of the two dance traditions seen at celebrations. While dragon dances, performed by a troupe of acrobatic dancers, involve a long dragon creature lifted up on poles to be controlled by performers. The world record for the longest dragon in a dance is currently 18,390 feet!
Traditional dance troupes perform impressive, acrobatic feats with heavy props amid blaring noise. Drums, gongs, and firecrackers create chaos meant to discourage spirits with ill intent.
Auspicious color, day, time and year
From clothing and underwear to lanterns and calligraphy, bright, vivid red is the color of choice for Chinese New Year. Red is considered an auspicious, lucky color in Chinese culture no matter the occasion, but particularly so during Lunar New Year.
Most of the decorations are red in color. With red lanterns adorning streets, most towns and cities are literally painted red! At home, the most popular New Year decorations are upside down fu, dui lian, lanterns, year paint, papercutting, door gods, etc.
No Chinese New Year is complete without the red envelope. Known in Mandarin as hong bao, red envelopes containing money are often given by elders to children or unwed young adults. The amount of money given should be an auspicious number. Even numbers are preferable. Six and eight are considered very lucky, but four is unlucky and should be avoided. Some lucky amounts are 88, 108, and 128. Banknotes should be as new and crisp as possible.
With the advent of technology, geography is no longer a factor. WeChat, China’s primary social-media platform for messaging, also allows people to send money electronically to friends as a digital form of hong bao.
Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is one of the biggest holiday celebrations for many people in the world spanning 15 days.
The 15th day is when the Yuan Xiao festival, also called the Lantern festival, takes place. The day coincides with the first full moon of the new lunar year. During the night, congregations of flying, lit, paper lanterns are commonly seen in public places at lantern fairs, which are usually held at temples. The fifteen day marks the conclusion of the New Year celebrations.
2019 is the Year of the Earth Pig
Have you ever wonder why the Chinese do not start or open business just anytime or any day of the week, month, or year? That’s because they believe starting a business or opening up an establishment should be done on an auspicious year, month or day. It’s not just the day. The time element is also important.
The Chinese believe that by choosing an auspicious date for a grand event, it could attract business and prosperity. And this belief has also made its way among the Filipinos. That’s why when locals are planning events, even the simplest event of their lives, they consult their Chinese friends.
This writer, for one, has followed the advice of her Chinese friend to choose the best date for the birth of her youngest child. I was due to give birth via the C-section in December 2002. My OB-gyne told me that I could choose from December 18 to Christmas day (25th) to be my kid’s birthdate. My friend who does fengshui for friends and select clients said December 23 would be the best for us, mother and daughter, based on her analysis of my birthdate and year. Not really a believer, I decided to follow her advice since I felt I had nothing to lose after all.
Dear daughter was diagnosed with severe rheumatic heart disease/mitral regurgitation at seven years old. She hardly learned from grade school and she was always caught staring at nowhere most of the time. She easily got tired and would always asked to be carried up like a baby. Since then she had to endure antibiotic injection every 21 days. This is aside from her heart meds maintenance.
Despite her medical expenses plus other expenses owing to her special education program, I could attest that we—my daughter, now 16, and I—are lucky to have each other. Things always feels right and she seems to make everything light and easy for me and my family even during the most trying times.
According to Chinese astrology, 2019 is a great year for business—to make money and to invest! Likewise, the Year of the Earth Pig is going to be full of joy, a year of friendship and love for all the zodiac signs. (Years of the Pig include 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, and 2031). 2019 is an auspicious year because the Pig attracts success in all the spheres of life.
Dating back centuries, many Chinese traditions are deeply rooted in lore and superstition. Even folks, non-Chinese included, who aren’t ordinarily very superstitious often go along with practices which are meant to attract luck in the new year ahead.
Still for the Chinese, the most important tradition of them all is to spend time with family and loved ones. As billions of people, especially migrant workers, return home over long distances to celebrate with the people they love, flights and rail service become booked up. Workers in China’s distant regions and islands such as Taiwan and Hong Kong fill flights to the mainland during the first two months of the year.
I have always wanted to witness an authentic Chinese New Year at least in HongKong but my HK-based high school classmate cum friend told me that there is really nothing spectacular. She said, it’s all about family in the same way that our Filipino balikbayans come home to the Philippines for the Christmas season.