Happy Lunar New Year, 新年快乐

February 16th, 2018 is the first day of Lunar New Year in China this year. In China, the Spring Festival is the most important festival for us to celebrate the coming new year, and it is also an important holiday for family members get together to have a big meal just like Christmas in the Western countries. As an international student, this is the first time I cannot celebrate the Lunar New Year with my family, so I feel a little homesick. However, it is lucky for us because we can have a video call with my family through the WeChat, which is a communication application in China.

I know there are a lot of other Asian countries celebrate Lunar New Year, too. However, each country has their own style to celebrate Lunar New Year. When we celebrate the Lunar New Year, we will give a lot of blessing to others instead of just saying “Happy New Year.” In China, there is a cycle of twelve years, and each with a different animal. Thus, we will say a lot of blessing words to our friends and relatives according to the represented animal in the year. For instance, 2018 is “the Year of Dog”, so we will say “gou nian da ji” in Mandarin which means “Happy New Year of Dog” in English. Also, we will say some benedictions including the characteristics of that animal like “wish you becomes cute like a dog.” Besides these, we will say “gong xi fa cai” in Mandarin in order to bless others to have a better life in the new year.

As you can see, different countries will have different cultures and different meanings. I think these lunar new year blessing phrases represent the unique charm in Chinese culture, and they help us to express our best wishes to others. China has a long history of about 5,000 years, and a lot of traditional cultures had been handed down from generation to generation. We should retain those unique features, share them with people from other countries, and also respect other cultures in order to retain a multi-cultural world.