Lunar New Year and the traditions behind it
By Nguyen Nguyen, Fall ’15, Sharon Choi, Spring ’17, Dinesh Ganesan, Fall ’15 and Anu Babuji, Fall ’17
Sharon: As a Korean American, celebrating the New Year is very confusing for me because with the two cultures combined, I have the option of celebrating it on three different occasion.
In the US, people typically celebrate it on New Year’s Eve by getting together with friends to count down until the new year. In South Korea, we celebrate the New Year two times, neither of which are on December 31st. This is because we have two different ways of counting dates.
One way is based on how the Earth orbits around the Sun once for 365 days (Gregorian). This is basically how Western cultures count and we celebrate the “new” year on January 1st.
Another way to count dates is by basing it around the phases of the Moon. (Hence why it is called Lunar New Year). One full Moon cycle is ~29.5 days so one Lunar Year ends up being around 10 days shorter and each year, the Lunar New Year date is adjusted. (Here is a tool to help you convert the dates: http://www.prokerala.com/general/calendar/chinese-year-converter.php) This method is deeply rooted in our history and was the only time we celebrate the new year until more recently. This year, it falls on February 16th so people are pretty excited about having the 15th (the Thursday before) through the weekend off from school and work.
Nguyen: You may have heard that this year, 2018, is the year of the Dog. If you are wondering how there are animals come about to represent the years, you can watch this video from TED-ed to learn the mythical origin of this cycle:
Fun fact (and as mentioned in the video): Instead of the rabbit, we have cat as the 4th zodiac animal. It’s probably because rabbits are generally rare in Vietnam and cats are everywhere. The animal zodiac also comes into play when talked about your birth year. It’s mostly for fun and not taken too seriously nowadays, similar to the astrological zodiac, but it does have some cultural significance such as to determine who should be the first visitor of the year to bring good luck. In case you are curious about your birth year animal, if you are born in 1992, it’s the Goat, 1993, Rooster; 1994, Dog; 1995, Pig; 1996, Rat; 1997, Ox; 1998, Tiger; 1999, Rabbit/Cat, and 2000, Dragon. Like Western Zodiac, a person born under a birth animal is said to have certain characteristics similar to that animal (ex: diligence of an ox, loyalty of a dog, laziness of a pig, or being the G.O.A.T of a goat).
Lunar New Year is observed in China, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Tibet, and in many East Asian and South East Asian communities abroad, each with its own variation of traditions and customs as told by our Brothers:
Anu: Lunar New Year was always one of my favorite holidays/occasions of all time. Having been born and brought up in Singapore, which is a very multicultural country but still has a large population of Chinese individuals, I was always surrounded by Lunar New Year festivities growing up. Watching lion dances in the cultural center whilst eating some authentic Chinese food with my mom, dad, and brother was an ideal Lunar New Years celebration for our family. The best part: all of our Chinese neighbors would always give us Hung-Bao’s (Little envelopes with generous amounts of cash in it)!
Sharon: There are many traditions associated with the new year and each family can decide which of the two dates to follow them. A dish called Tteokguk(떡국) is a soup made with sliced rice cake (this is more of a savory patty than a “cake”).
We eat this dish because one bowl of this soup represents gaining one year in age. To provide some context, Koreans count age by everyone turning one year older together every calendar year on January 1st. Older members of the family usually joke about not wanting to eat the soup for the sake of not gaining another year in age.
Another tradition is called Saebae. Younger members of the family, usually those who are in primary and secondary school, bows to the elder family member (grandparents and older aunties/uncles) to wish a Happy New Year. In return, the elder family member gives a short advice (i.e. “Be healthy and do well in school this year.”) along with money (~$10-$50 usually). This is a pretty exciting day for younger people because you can get a lot of money from this.
Koreans who practice Buddhism or Confucianism follow a third tradition called Jaesa where the family cooks a table full of food and hold a candle ceremony to celebrate and honor their ancestors. They keep their doors open so that the spirit of their ancestors can come in and enjoy the food. If you’re familiar with the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos, I think this tradition is pretty similar.
Between the three optional traditions and two different dates, each family picks and chooses when they want to celebrate what and it’s interesting to note how our celebrations have evolved with time and globalization.
Dinesh: Usually what we do when I’m with family is during the day we visit our cousins and family friends and exchange ampao (money in a red envelope — presented by parents or adults to kids or teenagers). in the evening we may go to see a Chinese new year performance but that has not happened in a while. but the main festivity is either inviting friends over or going over to friends place at night for a massive dinner with lots of people. and before we start eating, someone usually toasts to good health and wealth and a good year ahead, and a ritual called Lohei is done. This is where everyone gathers around a table and in the center of the table there is massive plate or massive bowl of noodles filled with ingredients (unmixed). and everyone gets a pair of chopsticks and tosses the noodles around together, mixing the ingredients before the food is distributed.
Nguyen: I have very fond memories of Tet (how we called Lunar New Year in Vietnam) growing up. Tet is truly the time where family members, no matter how far away you are to come back home and welcome the new year with your family, similar to how Christmas is here in the U.S. Schools would be closed for 2 weeks while most work places would close for the week. A full set of offerings, such as those in the picture, would be made and offered to the ancestors and local deities before shared as meals while waiting for midnight. Stories of the past year would be told around the table, old grudges forgiven, with a spirit of revitalization as the new year comes and thankfulness for the past year. The first three days of the new year would be booked with visits to elders, friends, teachers, and extended members of the family, with gifts and well wishes for the new year to come. I somewhat dreaded these visits when I was younger as they would last for hours at times but free money is usually a great incentive. There are some interesting customs that my family used to observe such as not sweeping the house for the first three days (as to not sweep the fortune away), visiting pagodas, or releasing a carp for the Kitchen Guardians. As Sharon also mentioned above, with time, these traditions are changing with modernization and observed accordingly to the circumstances and belief of each families. As globalization continues, we strive to maintain a modernized look for the country while retaining our cultural identity.
If you have stories to share about how you and your family observe Lunar New Year growing up, please tell us in the comments. I regretfully was not able to reach out to more people but would love to hear your stories!
If you have not experienced Lunar New Year, which I assume is most of you, you can have the chance to at 6 PM, March 5th in the Student Center Ballroom, at GT CSA Lantern Festival. Social and D&I will co-host a Feel Good Monday so that we can all go to the event together for any interested Brothers. More details for the events here:
Originally published at gtakpsite.com on February 24, 2018.
