Originally written for The Tombo Times, Feb, 2006. The current 2008 New Year is The Year of the Rat.

If you follow both the lunar and the solar calendar, then you’re lucky enough to celebrate two separate New Years. Mr. Mo was kind enough to share with us some of the traditions and customs practiced in parts of China for the Chinese New Year, which is based on the lunar calendar.

Like in Japan, the Chinese New Year is a time for family and relatives living separately to come together and enjoy each other’s company. It is a custom for children working in the cities to go home and celebrate the New Year with their parents, and, barring extraordinary circumstances, almost everyone does.

In the north, families get together on New Year’s Eve and make gyoza (dumplings). A coin is places in one of the gyoza and whoever gets the coin-filled gyoza will be blessed with good luck for the coming year. The gyoza have the same shape as a Chinese coin, and are indispensable as a food symbolizing financial wealth.

Fish cuisine is also indispensable. In Chinese, the character for “fish” (魚) has the same reading as the character for “left over” (余), so fish is said to be auspices in that there will be left over. There is also a special kind of mochi, whose name is a homophone with the Chinese character for “tall” (高), signifying improvement.

There is also a custom of posting papers with the character for happiness (福) upside down on walls. This is another play on words, as the Chinese word for “knock/flip over” (倒) has the same pronunciation as “arrive” (到). By turning happiness upside down, Chinese people express their hopes that happiness will arrive this year.

In preparation to welcome the New Year, each household decorates the entrance hall of their dwelling with various auspicious sayings and knick-knacks. Everyone stays up until midnight, and when the clock strikes twelve, we light firecrackers to ward of evil spirits and welcome in the gods of the New Year. Of late, fireworks have been banned, especially in large urban areas, because of the noise and the air pollution created. Fireworks can only be lit in areas designated by the government.

On New Year’s Day, the whole family dresses in brand new clothes, pays homage to their ancestors, and then do their New Year’s greetings, starting from the oldest down. The head of household passes out money wrapped in red paper to the children. This also act as a charm to ward off evil and assure good health.

The Chinese New Year is said not to be over until fifteen days later, after a holiday called yuanxiao-jie (元宵節). Legend has it that if you walk over one hundred paces on this night, then you will have good health for the following year, so everyone walks around outside to enjoy fireworks and decorative lanterns. Once yuanxiao-jie has ended, everyone finally feels that the New Year has come and we get ourselves in the mindset to work hard for another year.