Happy Chinese New Year! “Gathering ‘Round the Stove”
Paying respects to ancestors at Chinese temple, New Year's tradition
Kids get to stay up late on New Year's Ev
Relatives in Taiwan just sent me a quick email about connecting on Chinese New Year’s Eve. To help decipher, here are cross-cultural notes (longer than the email itself!):
- Because of time difference, 12 hours, we clarify by saying “my time” or “your time.” If you see me bleary-eyed my time morning, it meant that I was up late chatting with my sister “her time late night” after kids bedtime and she’s free to talk.
- My sisters and I can speak Chinese but not readily read or write it. (I had limited schooling years ago, but don’t use it, you lose it.) As a result, we use a combination of pinyin, phonetics, Chenglish and sometimes IM talk to convey Chinese terms and proverbs. Makes for a very interesting multilingual email of sorts, and occasional miscommunication!
- New Year’s Eve dinner is the most important family ritual of the year and a night of unity, reunion, harmony, and paying respects to ancestors. Kids can stay up late and seniors do the “longevity vigil” as a positive sign of their vitality and life span. Popular dishes include anything whole (complete) or long (longevity): Whole chicken (more auspicious than “broken” chicken); Whole fish (don’t flip the fish, akin to old fisherman’s tale of flipping a boat); long noodles, long leafy greens, long string beans!
- New Year’s is celebrated over 15 days. During that time, most shops are closed, so you better do your shopping and get any business done before then!
- Lion dancing is another tradition during this time (Jan to Apr) to chase away demons and bring good luck to businesses and communities. Traditionally all-male dancers, I was in the first Women’s Lion Dance Troupe in New England! It’s much harder than it looks–lunging, squatting, bringing the huge lion head to life, performing a story, working the mouth, twitching the ears, –all at the same time! It’s was a great learning and bonding experience for all of us.
Maybe we can “chat” this weekend? Your Sat, around 11am – noon? It will be NY’s eve here and we will have just had our chroo-shi-yeh-wei-loo (NY’s eve gathering ’round the stove, sounds like ”chef” “thin” “night” “hello?” “stove”), which is traditionally a hotpot meal. Get it, gather ’round the stove?
GONG XI FA CAI ! (Mandarin)
Gung Hoy Fat Choy! (Cantonese)
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!
