By Margaret Abe
 Chef Chu’s restaurant in Los Altos holds an annual Chinese New Year celebration. |
Of all the traditional Chinese festivals, the New Year is the most colorful and important. It starts with the new moon on the first day of the New Year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. Chinese New Year is a spring festival celebrated during our winter, on the first day of the first moon of the lunar calendar, based on the cycles of the moon. The date varies every year, but the festival always falls between Jan. 21 and Feb. 19 and lasts for two weeks.
This is the time the Chinese congratulate each other and themselves on having passed through another year, visiting friends and relatives, and welcoming the New Year. It is a time to sweep out the old and welcome the new. Every corner of the house must be swept and cleaned, and debts must be repaid before the New Year.
The Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner gathering is the most important family occasion of the year. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations are family affairs, and at midnight on New Year’s Eve, the younger members of the family pay their respects to their parents and elders. Tangerines (symbolizing good luck), oranges (wealth) and pomelos are frequently displayed in homes and stores. These symbols have developed through a language “pun” - the word tangerine having the same sound as “luck” in Chinese, and the orange having the same sound as “wealth.” The two flowers during the New Year are the plum blossom, which symbolizes courage and hope since it bursts forth at the end of winter on a seemingly lifeless branch, and the water narcissus. It is believed that if the latter blossoms exactly on New Year’s Day, it will bring good fortune for 12 months.
According to the Chinese zodiac, 2005 is the year of the rooster. Every year an animal sign is repeated in a cycle - the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and boar, in this order. In the Chinese zodiac, every 12 years the same animal signs rotate and reappear. As an example, the Chinese horoscope may predict that those born in the year of the rooster will have a very good and prosperous year. It also serves a useful social function: To find out a person’s age, ask them what their animal sign is!
On New Year’s Day everyone dresses in new clothes, and the children are given “lai-see envelopes,” good luck money wrapped in small red envelopes. On the second day friends and relatives visit with gifts and red envelopes for the children and young adults, much in the spirit of Christmas gifts. The visitors are greeted with New Year cake (”niangao”) and traditional delicacies in eight compartments filled with food items significant to the New Year season, including dried fruits, candied red beans, lotus root, coconut and melon strips, candies, sugar-coated peanuts, melon seeds, etc., called a “tray of togetherness” or “chuen-hop.” This tray of sweets can also be purchased ready to serve.
The first week is a time for socializing. The seventh day of the New Year, called “everybody’s birthday,” is when you are considered one year older. In traditional China, this is considered more important than individual birthdays.
The New Year celebration ends on the 15th day of the first moon with the Lantern Festival and parade. In the evening, lanterns are carried by children into the streets to use in the parade. The dragon dance is performed by young men as a wonderful finish to the New Year festival.
In Chinatown in San Francisco and other cities, the celebration is adapted to its environment. Therefore, in some places, social visits and family dinners are celebrated in the evenings or the weekends.
This year’s San Francisco Chinatown parade on Feb. 19 featured approximately 20 floats, marching bands, lantern carriers and the culminating highlight, the dragon dance.
Here are some interesting comments from members of our community about Chinese New Year:
“Lots of cleaning is done at Chef Chu’s restaurant before the New Year in order to start off with a clean slate. Also, everyone gets a haircut and doesn’t have their hair cut again for the next 15 days,” said Larry Chu Jr. On New Year’s Day, four generations of the Chu family gathered at their home. Ruth and her sisters each cooked one New Year specialty dish, contributing to the family celebration. A whole fish is always part of their menu.
Although adults give red envelopes to children, Belinda Chung of BK Collections said she always receives a “lai-see envelope” from her parents, too!
On New Year’s Day, Meredith Hong and her husband, Todd, walked out of their house facing the northeast direction to invite good health and wealth into their lives.
“Within the two weeks of the celebration, our family and extended family ate a Buddhist vegetarian dish called ‘jai, Buddha’s delight,’ also eaten by the monks. These are vegetables that sound like or mean something that represents good luck. My mom also made a New Year cake called “niangao” for dessert,” said Sue Ann (Chow) DeGuzman.
Vicki and Richard Woo said, “We celebrated our New Year’s Day dinner for 10 at Chef Chu’s with our friends Bob Armistead, Cyd and Sandra Overton, Donna Whitney and Uwe Chadda, Gisele and Ken Miller and Ron Davies.” In the old country the families invited their sons to return home for the New Year’s dinner and the married daughters joined them the next day - since the sons hold the family name.
“A New Year’s taboo is that you never congratulate anyone in the bedroom, since only sick people are in bed. Our family celebrated New Year’s Eve dinner on Friday, Feb. 4, after hearing on the radio it was a good day to celebrate,” said Margaret Kwan.
Families celebrate Chinese New Year in many different ways, although, as the generations go by, there seem to be fewer and fewer families who observe and celebrate the rich cultural customs and traditions. My thanks to Lawrence Chu and Larry Jr. for sharing the food and for keeping the tradition, culture and symbolism alive at Chef Chu’s. “Gung hay fat choy,” happy New Year!
To reach Margaret M. Abe, call the Los Altos Town Crier at 948-9000.
