Lunar New Year celebrations begin

Friday marked the start of Chinese New Year, also referred to as the Lunar New Year. It is a 15-day celebration that begins on New Year’s Eve (this year observed on Thursday). Bok Kai Parade and Festival Committee Chairperson Candice Young Fresquez said the celebration begins with a family dinner, called the reunion dinner.

The feast is held at the home of a family’s oldest matriarch where a large feast takes place. Young Fresquez said each dish holds significant meaning. She said there are usually an even number of dishes served.

“Even numbers are the best,” Young Fresquez said. “Those are said to be the luckiest.”

Different families make a variety of dishes depending on where their family originated from. Young Fresquez said some dishes include fish, which symbolizes wealth, and noodles

symbolize longevity.

Family members do not start saying “Happy New Year” to each other until the start of the Lunar New Year – which was Friday this year.

In China and Hong Kong, companies and stores close for some or all of the 15 days of the celebration to allow people to travel home to be with family. Attending family banquets is another tradition of celebrating Chinese New Year, Young Fresquez said.

This year, Young Fresquez, her husband and their kids had a small gathering with Young Fresquez’s parents.

“For our family we didn’t

do anything large,” Young Fresquez said.

Her brother who lives in San Francisco did not come to visit because of the pandemic. She said many families have had to do the same as hers and celebrate differently because of the current situation.

One tradition that Young Fresquez’s family continued this year was the giving of red envelopes filled with money. Every family member who is married gives a red envelope to every unmarried family member. Young Fresquez remembers getting $1 or $5 in envelopes when she was younger.

“It was one of my favorite times of the year,” Young-fresquez said.

The giving of the

cash-filled red envelopes symbolizes good luck.

Growing up, Young Fresquez said there used to be small celebrations in Marysville during Lunar New Year. While that doesn’t happen anymore, the biggest event in the city happens 30 days later with the Bok Kai Parade and Festival.

This year, the plan is to have an adapted festival and parade take place on March 13. Young Fresquez said more details about the event will be announced soon but described what will take place as a reverse drive-through parade. Cultural art displays like the Bok Kai dragon will be set up in one location for people to be able to drive past and see.

Historian David Lei lives in the Bay Area but has

traveled to the Bok Kai Temple in Marysville for the last several years. He is a part of the Chinese American Pioneer Heritage Committee, which provides some of the content for the Bok

Kai Parade and Festival. He said the temple will get visitors even amid a pandemic.

“They will still get a crowd,” Lei said.

He said family and remembering one’s ancestors is central to the Lunar New Year celebration. One of the first things Chinese people who observe Chinese

New Year do is go to the ancestral altar in their home and talk to their ancestors about life events of the past year.

Another tradition of the Lunar New Year is visiting

a temple and giving thanks to the deities if a person overcame an obstacle in their life. Lei said different families have different deities they give thanks to depending on where their family is from. He said while about 10 percent of Chinese people would consider themselves religious, about 80 percent would say they do pray and go to the temple.

“For the Chinese, it’s less a belief than a ritual,” Lei said.

The western belief that the Chinese deify their ancestors is not accurate, Lei said. In Chinese culture people keep a relationship with their ancestors. The deities that people do give thanks to are personal to each person and people

interact with that deity in whatever way they choose.

“Confucius says to have harmony in society you must have these rituals and ceremonies,” Lei said.

Lei is a third generation Congregationalist Christian but said going to the temple is part of his tradition and remembering his ancestors. He said the Bok Kai festivities and Bomb Day in Marysville remind him of celebrating as a kid and he’s able to reconnect with friends by attending.

He said he wants people to realize that the celebrations are not strange but an important part of Chinese culture.

“It’s another culture having bonding through a common ceremony,” Lei said. “It brings harmony to the community.”