Hooray! It’s the Year of the Rabbit!

The Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is a time of celebration and reunion for families across China and other parts of the world with Chinese heritage. The festival is based on the lunar calendar and typically falls between January 21st and February 20th. This year, the Chinese New Year is on February 10th, marking the start of the Year of the Water Rabbit.

The Chinese zodiac is a 12-year cycle, each year represented by an animal symbol. The Water Rabbit is the fourth animal in the cycle and is considered to be a peaceful, elegant, and kind creature. People born in the Year of the Rabbit are said to be lucky, charming, and creative. They are also believed to have a strong sense of humor, making them well-liked by others.

The Chinese New Year is one of the most important festivals in the Chinese calendar and is celebrated with a variety of customs and traditions. One of the most notable is the reunion dinner, where families come together to enjoy a meal and exchange gifts. Red decorations, including lanterns, banners, and couplets, are put up to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits. Fireworks are also a staple of the Chinese New Year, with many cities hosting displays to mark the start of the new year.

The day before the Chinese New Year usually accompanied by a reunion dinner (nián yè fàn), consisting of special meats served, as a main course for the dinner and as an offering for the New Year. Most reunion dinners also feature a communal hot pot as it is believed to signify the coming together of the family members for the meal. This meal is comparable to Thanksgiving dinner in the U.S. and remotely similar to Christmas dinner in other countries with a high percentage of Christians.

In northern China, it is customary to make jiaozi, or dumplings, after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese sycee. In contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a glutinous new year cake (niangao) and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days. Niángāo [Pinyin] literally means “new year cake” with a homophonous meaning of “increasingly prosperous year in and year out”.

Another important tradition during the Chinese New Year is the giving of red envelopes filled with money, especially to children. This is believed to bring good fortune and protect against bad luck in the coming year. The festival is also a time for cleaning and tidying up one’s home, as well as paying respect to ancestors through offerings and rituals.

Ms. Lin, the sponsor for the Asian Student Union, shared her experiences and traditions celebrating the Lunar New Year. “Lunar New Year is special because it’s a tradition that people look forward to and Koreans like me enjoy celebrating it. It used to be like a payday because you would get a fat envelope full of cash from your uncles and aunts until you’re married.” These envelopes are a form of a blessing and meant to suppress both the aging and challenges that were associated with the coming year, to junior members of the family, mostly children, and teenagers. The money can be of any form, specifically numbers ending with 8, meaning prosperity, but packets with denominations of odd numbers or without money are usually not allowed due to bad luck.

ASU board members came up with the idea of Lunar Grams to bring the Lunar New Year spirit to Reservoir. The president of ASU, Caitlin Ro explained how Lunar Grams came about. “We knew we wanted to do something to celebrate the Lunar New Year but then the week before was midterm. We couldn’t really do anything about decorations at that time, so we figured that a good way to celebrate and also raise money for ASU was to do some sort of fundraiser. That’s how we came up with the idea of Lunar Grams, which is based on candy grams.”

The Chinese New Year and the Year of the Water Rabbit are a time for families to come together and celebrate the start of a new year filled with hope and good fortune. The festival is steeped in tradition and is an important part of Chinese culture, offering a glimpse into the rich history and customs of the country. Whether you are Chinese or not, the Chinese New Year is a time to appreciate the value of family, friendship, and unity.