On February 7th began the Chinese New Year. This will be the year of the rat. It is not thought of as an auspicious year for most people…at least not for people born under the sign of the tiger like myself…but that’s another story.
To celebrate this occasion I took a tour of Chinatown. Our guide was a charming young woman who is doing a doctorate in Chinese studies, so she had a lot to say about the traditions and beliefs surrounding the New Year.
She told us about some of the rituals surrounding this event. Every day in the weeks before and after New Year’s Day celebrates a different event and carries different traditions.
Before the year ends, people must pay their debts, and clean their houses. They also start buying food for the celebrations. They decorate their houses with red and gold signs and banners that are meant to bring good luck, with fruit trees and flowering plants that are supposed to bring prosperity…effigies of lions or dragons that are supposed to protect the house or business.
They will leave food on the ancestors’ altar, usually fruit and sweets, each kind with different properties and powers. Some of the sweets are meant to fill the gods mouth or seal their lips so they cannot report bad things that may have occurred during the year.
On the day itself, families gather to share a banquet. They wear their best clothes and try to stay awake as late as possible to make sure that no negative spirits enter the house.
A few days later, when the Kitchen God leaves the house to go up to heaven to report to the Gods, people are left unwatched and often succumb to temptation and overdo the eating and drinking…
Eating is an important part of the celebrations, as many of them have known famine in the past, being able to share a feast with members of one’s family is very significant. The tour included a traditional meal, which started with a dish of shrimp, scallops, octopus and vegetables served in a fried noodles basket. Next came a stir fry beef dish, next a whole fish, followed by noodles, then by General Tao chicken and white rice, followed by a roasted chicken dish! The General Tao was the most popular and very tasty… Dessert was an unexpected ball of something white (maybe some kind of rice paste) with red beans inside floating in a warm syrupy red sauce.
We visited a temple. When we walked into the building I was surprised to hear music…not the traditional kind but rather, popular dance music. As it turns out the temple’s basement is used as a community center and they hold dancing lessons, and dances there…The temple itself caters to Buddhists, Taoists and followers of Confucius, which explains the presence of statues representing various divinities.
We also stopped in a hotel built according to Feng Shui principles. It has a lovely water feature on the lobby floor. I have been told they serve very nice Dim Sum here, I will have to give them a try one of these days.
