A guide to Lunar New Year activities in the Bay Area.
Holiday combines traditions of many cultures
Despite being one of the most widely celebrated holidays in the world, Lunar New Year can simultaneously be the most confusing. It lands on a different day every year, typically lasts for more than two weeks, and carries with it different customs and traditions across many celebrating cultures and countries. Here’s what to expect during the holiday: When is the Lunar New Year? Lunar New Year 2019 was Tuesday, Feb. 5, kicking off several days of celebration. As opposed to the standard New Year’s Day, which follows the solar calendar, Lunar New Year is based on the lunisolar calendar, meaning that it can fall anywhere between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20 each year. Is it the same as the Chinese New Year? The Lunar New Year title is often used interchangeably with Chinese New Year, while in China the holiday is typically called the Spring Festival. But don’t let the Chinese New Year moniker fool you; the holiday is celebrated by many Eastern and Southeastern Asian countries, from Korea to Laos and Singapore, which all historically followed the lunar calendar. In Vietnam, it is known as the Tet Festival.
Many of the customs specific to Chinese New Year are often lumped into the Lunar New Year traditions, such as the Chinese zodiac. What is the Chinese zodiac?
Each Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year is associated with a Chinese zodiac animal. The Chinese zodiac is made up of a sequential cycle of 12 animal signs:
rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Each year is attributed to a sign in the order, and repeats every 12 years. For example, the Year of the Pig, besides 2019, also includes 1971, 1983, 1999 and 2007.
Each animal sign contains various personality qualities and predictors, some of which are loosely based around various folkloric tales that explain the origin of the 12 animals. The pig is associated, among many qualities, with kindness and responsibility.
Among some of the famous people born in the Year of the Pig include Alfred Hitchcock, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Lucille Ball, Ronald Reagan, Julie Andrews, Elton John and Hillary Clinton. Why is the color red so prominent?
Most decorations and clothing during Chinese New Year center around the color red, often ornamented with gold. The custom derives from a folkloric tale in which a monster named Nian (a homonym for “year” in Mandarin) who terrorized villagers was warded off by fire, loud noises and the color red. What are the customs associated with the Lunar New Year?
Lunar New Year boasts many different customs across its celebrating cultures, though some are universally understood. For one, the holiday is predicated upon family togetherness. The weeks before and during are generally considered to be the largest annual human migration in the world, due to literally billions traveling home to celebrate with loved ones. Families will eat traditional home-cooked food and exchange red envelopes
(hongbao in Mandarin and lai see in Cantonese) — small red packets filled with gift money that elders typically give to younger family members.
Chinese New Year has the most elaborate and storied traditions. The lion dance is performed each year because, according to legend, villagers long ago created a lion costume to ward off an attack by Nian. Firecrackers are also used to ward off evil spirits.
Other traditions include cleaning the house to sweep away bad luck and make way for good fortune in the incoming year.
Chinese New Year has 15 full days of celebration, each of which has its own meaning and set of festivities. The first day is centered around visiting the eldest members of a family, while the Lantern Festival occurs on the 15th and final day, during which homemade paper lanterns are lit up and hung to celebrate the year’s first full moon. What culinary highlights are part of the Lunar New Year?
Each culture has different food and drink staples for Lunar New Year, but there are a few dishes that are most commonly seen on the table of any new year’s feast to symbolize luck and prosperity. Noodles, for instance, are believed to ensure long life and happiness.
Dumplings are most commonly enjoyed in Northern China, but have become a widely eaten Lunar New Year food. Shaped like China’s ancient gold or silver ingots, they symbolize wealth and are often tied to the superstition that the more you eat them during New Year celebrations, the more money you’ll receive in the New Year.
Spring rolls also represent wealth and are a staple during the holiday, which of course is also called the Spring Festival. Steamed fish and round citrus fruits like Mandarin oranges and pomelos, as well as nian gao (a glutinous rice cake that can be cooked as a savory dish or as dessert), are also thought
to bring prosperity. How do you say Happy New Year?
While there are several ways to wish people a happy new year during this holiday, gung
hay fat choy is the most common. It is Cantonese for “wishing you great happiness and prosperity.” The same phrase in Mandarin is gong xi fa cai.
Chuc mung nam moi is Vietnamese for Happy New Year. What are some of the Bay Area’s biggest Lunar New Year events? Lunar New Year & Tet Festival: San Jose will celebrate the Lunar New Year and Tet with a gathering of live music, lion dances, food and various contests.
3-11 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 9-10. Free. Eastridge Mall, 2200 Eastridge Loop, San Jose. https://bit.ly/2t94QA8 Lunar New Year Celebration: The Bay Area Discovery Museum will offer a program of Lunar New Year festivities, including lantern-making sessions, Chinese acrobatics and lion dance performances.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 18 (President’s Day). $13.95-$15.95. Bay Area Discovery Museum, 557 McReynolds Road, Sausalito. bayareadiscoverymuseum.org Lunar New Year Celebration: For East Bay revelers, the Oakland Asian Cultural Center will celebrate the holiday with a gathering filled with lion dancing, taiko drumming, folk dancing, and arts and crafts activities.
11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10. Free. Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 Ninth St., Oakland. 510-637-0455. oacc.cc Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade: The annual Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco’s historic Chinatown is arguably the country’s most iconic Lunar New Year celebration. A tradition that dates back to the 1860s, the Chinatown parade is hosted in the evening and features more than 100 groups representing various communities and organizations.
Among the many floats will be this year’s newly crowned Miss Chinatown USA and Gum Lung, the 288-foot golden dragon operated by 180 men and women of the local martial arts group White Crane.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed is this year’s Grand Marshal for the parade.
5:15 p.m. Feb. 23. Free, with $35 bleacher tickets for sale. Parade begins at Second and Market streets, S.F. 415-982-3000. chineseparade.com Chinese New Year Community Street Fair: The community street fair provides full immersion in the Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year festivities, with more than 120 booths and concessions filling San Francisco’s Chinatown throughout the weekend, offering various food and entertainment. The Community Fair Main Stage will also feature acts that include Chinese folk dancing, opera and drumming.
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 23; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 24. Free. Grant Avenue from California Street to Broadway; Sacramento, Washington, Jackson and Pacific streets, from Stockton to Kearny, S.F. 415-982-3000. chinese parade.com Chinese New Year Run: The annual 5K/10K run — winding through San Francisco’s Chinatown, North Beach and downtown — raises money to benefit youth and teen programs at the Chinatown YMCA Community Center, which serves more than 1,200 youth and their families.
8 a.m. March 3; entry fee but free to watch. Begins on Grant Avenue and Sacramento Street, S.F. www.ymcasf.org/CNyrun