Deputy Editor Vivian Zhou and Daily Editor Julia are super homesick because it’s Lunar New Year tomorrow! They ask several Bwoggers to describe some New Year traditions. 

Dumplings made by Julia!

It’s the Year of the Pig! Lunar New Year (based on the Chinese traditional lunisolar calendar!) falls on Tuesday, February 5th! This holiday is celebrated by China, Korea, Tibet, Mongolia, and Vietnam around this time. Countries like Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, and other regions of South Asia celebrate New Year’s later in the year, in April. Although many countries celebrate Lunar New Year, the activities and cultural traditions are typically slightly different. Bwoggers describe their favorite memories from back home of the New Year.

Vivian: “On Chinese New Year’s Eve, my family usually gets together to cook a traditional Shanghainese dinner including dishes that have lucky names– 全家福（quan jia fu) is my favorite dish and is a soup with a lot of different things such as fish balls, egg dumplings, mushrooms and more. The name of the dish means “fortune to the whole family”, since CNY is all about a reunion with the whole family. My family likes to watch the CNY TV program with comedic skits and singing performances while we cook and wait for dinner to begin all the way until the midnight countdown. We eat CNY snacks while we watch– peanuts, sunflower seeds, and peanut candies. My grandpa and I used to have sunflower seed eating races to see how fast we can crack them open.

In my earliest memories, my family would buy huge boxes of fireworks. My dad or my grandpa would run over and light them while the rest of us waited a few feet away. We would collectively run up the stairs to the top floor balcony, huddle up as a group, and watch the fireworks sizzle. You can feel the happiness and warmth even in the cold February air. After the fireworks, I go to sleep and at some point in the night, my parents and grandparents slip red money packets under my pillow. The next morning is like Christmas morning. This just the beginning of receiving red money packets from extended family, family friends, and anyone we see in the next 15 days. On the last day of CNY, we eat glutinous rice balls filled with sesame, red bean, pork, etc. The circular shape of these rice balls are symbolic for the reunion of family, and symbolizes the end of the holiday.”

Youngweon: “I haven’t celebrated Lunar New Year for the past 6 years, but my favorite parts were the food and the money. In Korea, we eat rice cake soup to signify turning a year older.”

Andrew: “My favorite part of the Singaporean New Year is eating Lo Hei. Lo Hei is a traditional Singaporean dish with salmon, orange peel, persimmons, and other vegetables such as carrots. The waiter comes over and says new years wishes such as “let’s be prosperous and get money”. It’s very exciting– everyone uses their chopsticks to mix up the dish. The higher up you bring your chopsticks, the more luck you have in the new year. Everyone cheers while they mix and it gets very messy.”

Julia: “On Mongolian New Year’s (Цагаан сар, literally: White Moon), I help my popular aunt prepare the holiday dish, бууз (buuz, basically fat dumplings), weeks before the actual holiday. The last few days of my winter break (late January), I rolled out so many dough circles, while my aunt pinched and stuffed the dumplings into shape. We made around 1000 dumplings. Utilizing the frigid Chicagoan subzero temperatures, dumplings were frozen out on the balcony and in our cars.

I actually had lived in Mongolia for three years, so I have had the privilege to experience a genuine Mongolian New Years. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, dresses up in traditional costume (дээл), and set up their dinner table in a very intricate way that abides uniquely Mongolian customs. Plates of potato salad, beet salad, dumplings, cooked mutton, and candies surround the large pyramid constructed of traditional cookies, arranged in a Buddhist lotus pattern.

The social aspect of MNY is pretty hilarious. All members of the family must somehow visit the houses of other members of the extended family. You’re hopping from one barely identifiable uncle’s house to the next, in hopes to receive gifts of money (and not socks). And at the end of the day, when you’re all stuffed to the brim… that’s when you know you’ve completed MNY successfully for that year”

Jenny: “For Chinese New Year, if we weren’t eating with our family and Skyping our grandparents, we would host these huge get-together dinners with all our family friends. They would be super fun have delicious dishes such as 八宝饭（ba bao fan）, 粽子（zong zi）, 青菜炒蘑菇 (Chinese vegetables and mushrooms), and also PORK RIBS. I think the food and the company have always been my favorite part of the holidays.”

If you’re feeling extra homesick during the holidays, here are some events happening nearby:

• Sun, Feb 17 1-3pm:  Free Lunar New Year Parade & Festival in Chinatown and Little Italy
  “About a half-million spectators line the streets of Chinatown for this colorful pan-Asian procession, which includes Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Malaysian, and even Hispanic floats and cultural performances. Expect massive crowds and lots of fun performances, colors, and eats. The Lunar New Year parade kicks off at Canal and Mott Streets, heads to Chatham Square, turns onto East Broadway toward the Manhattan Bridge, completing on Eldridge and Forsyth Streets towards Grand Street next to Sara D. Roosevelt Park.”
• Feb 5th 6-7:30pm Hong Kong Students and Scholars Society’s (HKSS) Chinese New Year Celebration in Lerner Broadway Room 
  “Celebrate the Year of the Pig! Come through to Lerner to get some good food and chill with your friends, while watching a comedic Stephen Chow movie. Think the upcoming Infinity War movie is the best of all time? Think again. Authentic Chinese food from Malaysia Grill and China Town provided (yes, we’re going all the way to China Town in -40 degree weather for all of you), and feel free to bring some friends along to chill.”
• Feb 9th 2-6pm Junzi Chinese New Year Market in Greenwich Village 
  “In celebration of the upcoming Chinese New Year, Junzi is curating a special New Year Market featuring the good tastes and talents of our local partners. So bring your cameras and appetite, and ring in the Year of Pig with Junzi!
  Junzi CNY Market presents:
  • Tanghulu brought to you by 京味小馆
  • Limited Edition Bubble Milk Tea from Luv Tea
  • The coolest designer wares from Chop Suey Club’s Chinese New Year Collection
  • Junzi Year of Pig customer-designed red pockets filled with goodies and surprises”
• February 6th 6-9 PM GSSC hosts “Lunar New Year Celebrtion” in the GS lounge. “Put on your favorite red clothes, come to GS Lounge and join us in our celebration for the year of the pig with 888 dumplings!”

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Yummy food via Vivian’s mom and Julia