Enter the dragon for the Chinese New Year
By Grace Segran
JAKARTA (JP): The Chinese New Year, celebrated on the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar, is the most important annual festival for the Chinese community. Each year is named after one of the 12 animals according to the Chinese zodiac; there is the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Boar, in that order. On Feb. 5 this year, the Chinese will celebrate the new year of the dragon.
The New Year is a vibrant and colorful festival. Chinese communities all over the world decorate their homes and public places with traditional red and gold decorations. Red symbolizes happiness while gold symbolizes wealth.
Families decorate their living rooms with vases of pretty blossoms such as pussy willow, azalea, peony and water lily. The Chinese believe that flowers are symbolic of wealth and growth, and without flowers there would not be the formation of any fruits. Traditional Chinese households would have live blooming plants to symbolize rebirth and new growth. On walls and doors are poetic couplets and good wishes in red.
Platters of mandarin oranges and lacquered trays of assorted dried fruits decorate the tables. Etiquette dictates that when visiting a relative or friend, you must bring mandarins; its orange color represents gold and denotes prosperity. Nowadays, many simply bring two as a token instead of a whole bagful as in the past.
The candy tray contains dried foods that are significant to the Chinese, such as candied melon (growth and good health); red melon seeds (red signifying happiness and prosperity); peanuts (long life); and kumquat (gold signifying prosperity).
A few days before the first day of the new year, everyone does a spring clean of their homes to spruce them up as well as to clear away old items. The idea behind this is to sweep away all the ill-fortune that exists in the family and to make way for good luck to come in.
On the eve of Chinese New Year, families from near and far return to their family home for the reunion dinner. Unmarried children living away from home will return to their parents' home, married sons bring home their families and married daughters return to their husbands' homes.
Many have done away with the traditional foods and dining at home, preferring to observe this important feast at the restaurant. For this reason, many restaurants have jumped on the bandwagon and feature special cuisine for the occasion. For example, you could have your new year's eve dinner with your family, at Seasons Cafe at The Regent, for Rp 130,000++ (children Rp 50,000++). This year Seasons Cafe will feature a Chinese hawker BBQ complete with dragon and lion dances.
Those who prefer to dine at home cook an array of their favorite celebration dishes, which are often influenced by the culture of the country they are living in rather than the culture that they come from.
Foods served include whole fish which represents togetherness and abundance, and chicken for prosperity. The chicken is presented whole -- complete with head, tail and feet -- to symbolize completeness. Some just settle for steamboat, a do-it- yourself dinner where everyone cooks their own food in the broth on a stove at the dining table. A tremendous amount of food is prepared at this time which is meant to symbolize abundance and wealth for the household.
After dinner, the house is swept for the last time before the new year. Everyone stays awake playing games or watching movies dedicated to the occasion to usher in the new year. Every light is kept on the whole night. At midnight, there are fireworks and firecrackers are lit.
During the first 14 days of the new year, Chinese greet each other with gong xi fa cai (Happy and prosperous new year). Children look forward to the Chinese New Year because when they greet their parents and relatives, they are rewarded with Hongbao, a little red envelope which contains cash. Hongbaos are normally given to unmarried children and the elderly.
After greeting the immediate family members at home, the family sets out to greet first their relatives and then friends. Everyone dons new clothes. Chinese families usually keep an open house and welcome visiting relatives and friends of various ethnic groups. Chinese delicacies are served and there is the exchange of new year cakes and mandarins. It is a time for reconciliation, forgiveness and settling of debts. Bad language and unpleasant topics are avoided.
The Chinese have many taboos for Chinese New Year. For example, on new year's day, you are not allowed to sweep the house. It is tantamount to sweeping good luck away. Some even go to the extent of not taking their thrash out on the first day of Chinese New Year. Immediately after the reunion dinner, all brooms and knives are kept stored to keep bad luck and misfortune away.
"To break" sounds like one of the ways to say the word "year" in the Chinese language. So if you break a glass or plate, you are to counteract the bad luck of "breaking the year" by quickly uttering, Suei suei pien an, which is a way of asking bad luck to go away and for peace to come.
New year celebrations last for 14 days, ending with a big celebration called the Lantern Festival on Chap Goh Mei, which literally means "15th day".