Happy Chinese New Year!

Hey guys, it's been a while since I released my last blog. Today, the 11th of February, marks the last day of this lunar year. For today's blog, I'd like to introduce you to some interesting foods and traditions related to this cultural holiday!

First off, before we go into that, we'd have to discuss the lunar calendar. Chinese New Year is also called the Lunar New Year as it follows the lunar calendar invented in ancient China. It was the dominant calendar system until the Gregorian calendar was introduced to the Chinese public. This system works with the revolutionary movement of the moon and the subsequent tidal effect on Earth. Farmers followed the calendar in order to help them determine whether it's time to harvest their crops. Hence, this system is also called the Agricultural calendar.

The Lunar Calendar

This calendar was relatively useful as specific dates often accurately estimate weather patterns. The ancient Chinese people marked dates such as solstices and this was especially useful for them to decide their daily activities. However, it begin to lose importance amongst the younger generations as the Gregorian calendar makes its way to education and is better understood internationally.

The Chinese Zodiac

Now moving onto the traditions. Obviously, though more commonly being known as the Chinese New Year, it isn't just celebrated in China (and Taiwan) only. The cultural influence of Chinese people around Asia is quite noticeable and national celebrations exist in neighboring countries such as South Korea and Vietnam. In addition, regions with large sinophone populations often regard this date as an important holiday too. Places such as Singapore and Malaysia tend to see a lot of family reunions and celebrations at this time each lunar year.

Festivals to honor deities, heroic figures and ancestors are a common occurrence. It's relatively common to see older generations praying to Caishen (Chinese for god of wealth) in hope that their savings accounts bloom in following year. Many also pray to statues of other mythical figures at home and in temples, such as Guanyin Pusa, wishing they'd become grandparents soon.

Statue of Guanyin

Other traditions also involve spiritual beliefs. A common thing in classical Chinese ideology is that it's best to dust one's house prior to the celebration to sweep away ill-fortune. Families gather up for annual reunion dinners as it's generally believed that the unity of a family is important during this time-being.

China, or East Asia as a whole, really does like the color red. To them, red and yellow symbolize important elements of society and oneself such as joy, fortune, and power. At this time of the year, nearly every house around would have paper-cuts on the doors and windows. In addition, people put 3 couplets (1 short couplet horizontally above the door, with the other 2 longer ones stuck vertically next to the door) involving a message hoping for good fortune in the coming year. Oh and, they like to give out "red packets" filled with money to friends and neighbors.

Chinese Couplet

Lastly, we can't just end the discussion of a festival without mentioning food. You can expect all sorts of Chinese delicacies on the dining tables. Some common guests that make it on there are dumplings and fish. There's way too much good food in the Chinese culture to describe and I probably will not bother covering them all, but some nice dishes that may appear are Chinese rice cakes, shrimp, Peking ducks and noodle soup. There's generally a division between the North and South in terms of food culture and this is sometimes seen during this occasion too. Google probably has a good load of info on the Chinese food, just don't search when you're hungry though.

Shanghai Savoury Nian Gao (Rice Cake)

Alright, to end this blog, thanks for reading! I'm aware that I didn't cover a lot of stuff such as Tết in Vietnam. Well, I don't know much about this occasion outside China (and Taiwan).

Fun thing: If you search Chinese New Year, Korean New Year or Tết, Google will have some firework rockets (or Cuan Tian Hou) ready for you c:

Here's 2 nice Chinese-themed songs to listen to during this wonderful time

- 大鱼 (Giant Fish / Kun) - 周深 (Zhou Shen)

- 年轮 (Annual Ring) - 张碧晨 (Diamond Zhang)

I wish you all a happy new year of Ox!