Enter the dragon for the Chinese New Year

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".