The Lunar New Year has always been a big deal in my home growing up. To this day, leading up to Chinese New Year, my parents spend days preparing for this occasion. A whole day is dedicated to cooking a banquet for a holiday we observe over 3 days. Let's also not forget the cleaning of the house top-to-bottom. Dinner consisted of my parents doling out items of food while explaining the significance and meaning of each food -- it all has to do with good fortune and long life. Man, I wish I had paid more attention to these traditions.
Over the past couple of years, Ted and I have created our own version of this holiday. Our knowledge is pretty limited and dependent mostly on emails and Skype calls with my mom, and my own interpretation of childhood memories of the holiday (Ted not being Chinese and all). We clean the apartment and we try to make a mini- banquet that consists of: a steamed fish (to represent luck and never running out), noodles of some sort (long life), some sliced carrots (to represent coins), and maybe some dumplings. This year, I decided to limit my kitchen time to making Chinese New Year almond cookies and to go out to eat at Myers + Chang, instead. We also invited some very good friends we've made here. While not Chinese and having never celebrated Chinese New Year, they're good sports who are genuinely curious and delighted about sharing in various customs and recognized the importance of this holiday for me. As I get older, I value these traditions even more and am pretty pleased that while our customs (as in the ones Ted and I have mashed together) are not quite to-the-letter, we've created our own that I feel honour an important piece of my life -- a part of my Asian identity -- and have the privilege of sharing these with close friends.
So, yay!
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| Homemade almond cookies and strawberry luck candies! Yum! |
