Chinese New Year
Filed under: CulturalContrary to popular belief, by right, as according to the true Chinese culture, gifts should be exchanged by Chinese New Year’s eve.
Gifts = mandarins, peanuts, etc those that you put in those red plastic bags when you go visiting.
When I was younger, I remembered very clearly how my parents were rushing to our friends and relatives’ houses delivering these gifts come Chinese New Year. Nowadays, people just present them during visiting.
On the 1st day of Chinese New Year, most Chinese families have vegetarian meal as the 1st meal. Reason? To eat meat means to take life and it is considered bad to take life as the 1st thing you do in Chinese New Year. This will explain why vegetarian restaurants are unusually packed and crowded this time around.
In any case, food for the 1st day is prepared the day before (eve) because no one wants to use a meat chopper (cleaver) on Chinese New Year’s day. It looks bad and it sounds bad when it is used! *chop chop chop*
The 1st day is for visiting friends and relatives. Young people (like me) go visiting and older people stay at home to receive visitors. Young people are usually given presents in the form of cash in red packets known as Hong Bao or Ang Pow.
“Young” includes all unmarried persons of both sexes. It is not uncommon for a person, maybe 30 or 40 years old, to receive this red packet from his parents or uncles and aunts because he is still “young”. Auspicious words are said in New Year greetings like Year Year Got Fish, Step Step High Rise, In Out Safely, Body Healthy etc Children are warned not to quarrel or say bad words during this season.
Some businesses reopen on the 2nd day (like the car workshop near my house), but most on the 4th or 5th day.
Some have a token reopening on the 2nd day, because it is auspicious to do. The token reopening takes the form of opening the door and shifting some chairs or tables or making business calls, and then the business “closes” for the day.
According to some ancient writing, the 1st 8 days of the New Year are:- 1st day for chickens, 2nd for dogs, 3rd for pigs, 4th for sheep, 5th for oxen, 6th for horses, 7th for human beings and 8th for grains. The belief is that if these days are clear and bright the respective creatures born on those days will mature well and will be healthy. If the days are dark, the creatures borned will not prosper and will face disaster.
One special tradition for Southern Chinese is to eat raw fish on the 7th day. This is a million-dollar business in many areas in Southeast Asia. It is raw fish sliced very thin, almost like tissue paper, and eaten with a mixture of fresh vegetables, condiments and specially prepared sauce comprising ingredients such as plum sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, pounded groundnuts, ginger, pomelo, and other ingenious conconctions.
Raw fish is colloquially called Yu Sang, which literally means “fish raw”. Fish is yu which has the same sound as the word “excess” or “extra” and sang is life. Therefore to eat Yu Sang is to have extra life.
