A new year, a new start.
Officially commencing on January 28th, the 15-day Spring festival in China commemorates Lunar New Year, the sacred guise, especially for people in China. Rich red banners and lanterns drape across buildings and people adorn their houses with Chinese letters engraved in red. People are frenetically getting prepared to launch the year of the “rooster”. And across Asia, people are gathering to spread the cordial warmth with their families, the mirth in the ambience stronger than ever.
Chinese traditions include the setting off of fireworks, the vivid and colourful bursts shooting across the charcoal black sky. It has become a deeply rooted custom to set off these fireworks, as predecessors deemed that the loud banging of the fireworks would scare off the lurking evil spirits.
Chinese people also indulge upon dumplings—homemade and seasoned with own spices or store bought (both works). The Chinese-style dumplings represent the new replacing the old, which aligns well with the meaning of a new lunar year. The dumplings symbolize prosperity because the dumplings look like a pile of gold for the upcoming year.
Besides the new year being centered around fortunes and traditional blessings, the Lunar New Year is shrouded with superstitions. Chinese people believe that they need to clean their house and furniture before midnight on January 27th in order to eradicate the bad luck and souls in the house. They also believe that washing their hair or cutting it would mean washing their fortunes away, and therefore leave their hair untouched on the 28th. The discouragement of cleaning on the day of the 28th seems to be an ironic loophole of their superstitions.
The Chinese traditions seem to hold a strong place in Korea as well. Koreans are spooning large bowls of traditional “tteokguk”, a broth filled with rice cakes which is believed to gift another year of age, and “jeon” a dish of sliced vegetables, meat, and fish coated with wheat and egg before being fried. Often referred to as the “Seollal ritual”, family members gather in their hanboks and express respect and gratitude to their ancestors. After the meal, the younger generations of the family take a deep bow called sebae and the elders offer their blessings with New Year’s money.
Even under the same purpose and traditions of the New Year, each culture has its own unique elements whether it be the attires or the specific foods. All cultures amass into one on this day. Happy Lunar Year!
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