On February 10, 2024, cultures around the world will ring in a new year and mark the arrival of spring with the Lunar New Year. This holiday is significant to many cultures based in agriculture, which revolve around the lunisolar, rather than the Gregorian, calendar. To those who use the Chinese Zodiac, this year will be the Year of the Dragon. But while Lunar New Year is often solely identified as Chinese New Year, it is celebrated across Asia and in diasporic communities, each with their own unique customs.
Lunar New Year Across Asia:
China
Lunar New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is celebrated over 15 days in China. Each day has different traditions, such as married daughters visiting their parents, eating symbolic dishes, or cleaning one’s house. The most significant night, though, is New Year’s Eve, when the entire family gathers to herald in the new year with a meal, firecrackers, and red envelopes—envelopes filled with cash, often lucky $2 bills—for the children.
Chinese New Year meals are based on symbolism and linguistic homophones, exemplifying the culture’s adherence to superstitions and tradition. For instance, dumplings are eaten because their shape resembles ancient gold and silver ingots. Thus, they represent wealth for the new year. Another common dish is a whole steamed fish, because its character in Mandarin (魚, or yú) has the same pronunciation as the word for surplus (餘, also pronounced yú). To ensure a bounty for the year to come, families must save a portion of the fish after the meal. Other key elements of 年夜飯 (New Year’s Eve Dinner) are mandarin oranges, a homophone for wealth; long noodles, to symbolize a long life; and glutinous rice balls, whose round shapes are an emblem of completeness and a united family.
These foods aren’t the entirety of the holiday—far from it. Lunar New Year is the most important festival in China, trumping Christmas and the Gregorian New Year in significance as an integral part of Chinese culture. Millions across the nation travel home to see family, participate in lion dances, give—and receive!—red envelopes (as a kid, this is the best part of the holiday), and respect the nation’s roots in the harvest and respect for family.
Korea
Korean Lunar New Year, or Seollal, is a family-based holiday; many Koreans travel home in the weeks leading up to the New Year, making airports and train stations a chaotic place for all. Rather than a massive dinner or meal—though delectable foods are still involved—one of the major ways this festival is celebrated is through sebae, a respectful bow that one performs to their elders. Many also wear hanbok, or traditional Korean clothing, to add to the spirit of the celebration.
A key Seollal dish encapsulates all of the good wishes one hopes to have for the new year: tteokguk, rice cakes with clear, savory broth that represent wealth, longevity, good luck, and prosperity. With this long-standing tradition, tteokguk is a part of Korean culture as much as it is a celebratory meal, symbolizing the prayer for abundance and health that Koreans take into their new year.
Vietnam
In Vietnam, Lunar New Year is called Tết. They traditionally decorate with kumquat or peach blossoms to signify prosperity for the new year; travel to gather together with one’s family is also an integral part of the holiday.
A Tết meal consists of Banh Chung, sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves with meat or bean filling that is only eaten during this celebration. Vietnamese sausage, called Gio or Chag depending on the method of preparation, is another traditional dish. These are all meant to be eaten with one’s entire family on the first night of Tết, after a long, lively day of festivals, firecrackers, and parades.
Lunar New Year Locally:
With a significant Asian-American population, Orange County and Los Angeles have a variety of incredible celebrations taking place over the next few weeks. Bowers Museum, which features Asian art and history exhibits regularly, has a family festival on Sunday, 2/4. Disneyland decorations and parades have been running since 1/23 and will continue through 2/18, recognizing the holiday with music, food, and iconic characters. Also in the arts, Segerstrom’s Pacific Symphony plays on 2/10 to honor the cultural legacy of Lunar New Year.
There are countless other street festivals occurring to ring in the new year, and Asian-American enclaves within Orange County—particularly in Irvine, Buena Park, Westminster, and Garden Grove—are sure to have delicious foods and celebrations as we near the Lunar New Year. If you want to experience the culture of Lunar New Year, our local community has a lot to offer, so be sure to check it out!
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Photo Credit: Elite Traveler
Sources:
National Museum of Asian Art
Al Jazeera
