The Chinese New Year is one of the biggest festivals celebrated in China. This holiday is based on the lunar calendar, so even though it is honoring the coming of the new year, it is always sometime around February on the international calendar. Firework dealers’ stocks of firecrackers and fireworks suddenly disappear, and the money in their bank accounts rockets up. Public janitors’ worst time every year has arrived, for almost everyone lights up rolls of firecrackers and boxes of fireworks, leaving empty, blackened boxes and carpets of red wrapping. No one is able to sleep before midnight, for the noises outside sound like a battlefield. In almost every story of the apartments, delicious aromas waft out from the dozens of traditional Chinese dishes made for the annual family reunion dinner. All the windows and doors are festooned with red paper, containing Chinese characters of “happiness,” “good fortune,” or “live long.” These were basic traditions that my family had before my parents and I moved to the USA.
Chinese New Year has become a lot more simple since we moved here. One of the main reasons is because most of our family is still in China or Taiwan. A requirement of having a good Chinese New Year Party is having a lot of relatives. But we still have kept some of the traditions here.
Since none of our relatives live here, this holiday is celebrated with friends. Sometimes Darren and Wesley come, but not always, and a couple of other Chinese friends my mom has made over the years.
We usually host this holiday, since it’s my mom who invites everyone to the party. Most of these friends are great cooks, so my mom assigns them different dishes to bring. My mom, of course, will make her specialty, the Shanghai short ribs, and steamed fish. Rice cakes stand for “growing taller every year,” and glutinous rice balls mean “reunion with family and friends.” My mom prepares lots of red envelopes to give to her friends’ children. She hangs the remaining envelopes up as the red decorations on the windows. It’s not as elaborate as those giant paper-cutouts, but that will have to do here. First we eat our way through the delicious dishes made by my mom and her friends. The meal lasts for at least an hour, and I eat until I am totally stuffed. Then, the other kids and I run off to have some fun, while the parents sit around the table, sipping daintily on small cups of tea, and always keeping up a steady stream of the boring adult gossip or even more boring topic of their kids’ education.
Celebrating Chinese New Year has been a tradition since before I could remember. I know for a fact that this tradition was already really old when my great-great grandpa was just a boy. Our family celebrates this holiday because it is a tradition, not just for us, but for almost the entire Chinese race. Celebrating Chinese New Year is also for good luck, wealth and health in the new year.
Having a Chinese New Year party is very important to me, because in my opinion doing so is upholding the honor of our family and China. To me, not having this festival makes me not a true Chinese. Also, this holiday is the main source of my allowance.
Chinese New Year is a very big part of my life. If I ever have kids, I will make sure to celebrate this holiday with them and let them pass it down through generations to come.
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