Chinese New Year is a family time

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HAVE you ever had a slice of the Chinese sticky rice cake named niangao? It’s made with rice flour, sweetened with Chinese brown sugar and water and often decorated with dried Chinese red dates, or jujubes.

Chinese legend tells the story of a great leader who protected his people with a wall made from bricks of starchy, sticky rice. The wall later saved the people from starvation. Thousands of years later, during traditional Chinese New Year celebrations, many Chinese celebrate and hope for good luck by eating niangao.

So, what is the Chinese New Year and why is it celebrated after January 1? The holiday celebrates the start of the New Year as dictated not by our modern calendar, but by an ancient lunar Chinese calendar. On that calendar, a New Year begins after the second new moon after the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year and the onset of winter). The calendar is based on a 12- year cycle, and each year is named after an animal.

The Chinese calendar is based on the lunar year, so the date of Chinese New Year changes every year. The Chinese calendar follows a 12year pattern with each year named after an animal.

This year, the Year of the Monkey, began on Monday.

New Year is a 15-day holiday, beginning on the first day of a new moon and ending with the full moon on the day of the Lantern Festival.

Traditionally, Chinese New Year was considered a time to honour ancestors and family.

There are various stories which explain this. The simplest is that Buddha ( or the Jade Emperor) invited all of the animals to join him for a New Year celebration, but only 12 animals turned up.

To reward these animals, Buddha named a year after each of them in the order they arrived, beginning with the Rat, followed by the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat (or Sheep), Mon- key, Rooster, Dog and Pig. Depending on the year you were born, you are believed to have the various character traits of that year’s animal.

Today, people celebrate with festivals, fireworks and feasts. Food is a big part of the celebrations. Fish symbolises abundance, long noodles symbolise long life, and dumplings shaped like the full moon and filled with pork, vegetables and shrimp symbolise prosperity and the family unit.

“Chinese New Year is a time to have fun, gather with family, enjoy fireworks, parades, dances and of course good food,” says Li Hong, who handles cultural affairs at the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

“Everything is red,” Li explains, “from beautiful paper lanterns to red clothing and paper cards in windows to the huge dragons and lions in the traditional dances.”

“For me, Chinese New Year is always about the family gathering.” – Washington Post

FAITH: People walk into a temple during the Chinese New Year celebrations in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia.