Skip to main content

How to Celebrate the Year of the Monkey


Happy Chinese New Year! 

Gong xi fai cai!
Kung hei fat choy! 
Welcome, Year of the Fire Monkey. Like Korean Seollal​, Vietnamese Tet, Mongolian Tsagaan Sarand Tibetan Losar​, Chinese New Year  in the northern hemisphere farewells winter and the year gone by and rings in spring and the fresh year. Making wishes for luck, prosperity and good fortune and warding off evil spirits are central to many celebrations, which vary across China and Lunar New Year cultures.  Many of my friends ask me how they can celebrate the New Year... I usually say, lots of delicious food with family and friends .... but there are some little customs which I follow - not sure whether they are just things I remember from my childhood or things I have read about or heard from others. 

Things to do for Chinese New Year: 
1. Clean  your house before New Year's Day - symbolic of cleaning away any misfortune, and preparing for the good fortune of the new year. 
2. Give lucky red packets filled with money to children. These are called hong bao /lai see

3. Decorate with red lanterns, and Chinese sayings ( usually gold writing on red paper) at the front door.

4. As mentioned before, prepare special New Year food - we love all sorts of dumplings, red bean cakes, fortune cookies, red pork buns, noodles, lettuce cups with meat, noodles, spring rolls, fish and  chicken - well, any sort of good food, really. However, some foods are symbolic for good fortune and good health  : spring rolls represent gold bars; the Chinese word for 'carp" (fish) sounds like good fortune; dumplings shaped like old Chinese currency; noodles for long life; lettuce to signify new life; 
5. Wear the colour "red" and it is also said to be good luck if you wear new red clothes!
6. Stay up to welcome in the New Year, and make lots of noise ( firecrackers)  to frighten away any bad spirits. 
While these are a few things recommended for good fortune, there are consequently practices  to avoid. 
 Things to Avoid for Chinese New Year. 
1. Cleaning/sweeping/vacuuming - you do not want to sweep away the good fortune which arrives with the New Year. 
2. Similarly, washing clothes and hair. The first two days of the New Year are dedicated to the Water God, and also the character for hair has a similar pronunciation for becoming wealthy, so you do not want to wash away your wealth. 
3. Clothes that need mending - clothes in disrepair should not been worn during the New Year 
4. Rice porridge  - especially not for breakfast on New Year's Day. Just as with new clothes, you should start the year off as you would like it to continue. Rice porridge or congee is considered poor person's food, so should be avoided during New Year, even if you love it, like me! 
5. Debts. All debts should be paid before the New Year. 
6. Breakages . Try not to break household items during the New Year as this could be a negative omen for the rest of the year. 

If you really want to know about some more dos and don'ts ...
Today, the Sydney Morning Herald published an interesting article including a  list of dos and don't s for the Chinese New Year.... Here's the link 
While I follow a few of the customs when they suit me ( like the one about not cleaning or washing!), I think the best "dos for Chinese New Year are
-  to have fun by joining in some festivities in your own town... 
We will be participating in the Lantern walk here in Newcastle


- cook and share your favourite food ... home made is best! 

- spend time with your family , even if at times, they are a little crazy! 








 

  1.  
  2.  
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...
3 comments
Read more

Fragments

 Some days are just your lucky days - today I was very fortunate and privileged to open the first ever Australian exhibition "Fragments" by  UK  Fibre Artist  Sue Hotchkis .  Here is a little about the techniques of this amazing textile artist from her own website  ...  Working intuitively with print and stitch, marks, textures and colours are exaggerated, intensified to reveal the detail and complexity within the images. Materials are deconstructed using modern methods, ripped, burnt and dyed. Time is invested in their reconstruction; pieces can take from a week to several months to create. Whilst being aesthetically pleasing the work can also act as a metaphor for deterioration and ruin, associated with urban decay and ultimately death and loss. They evolve organically, built up with layers of print, cloth, paper, and stitch into three-dimensional abstract forms that hover between object and image; to create a unique, visual and tactile lan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Christmas Countdown 3 ; Christmas tree # 23 - Mannequins and Motors

Mannequin   and Mercedes Benz logo Christmas trees  Advent Blog Day 23 - Mannequins and Motors ... or... What does a Mannequin have in common with a Mercedes Benz?   I have been in such a dilemma as I have so few days left and so many Christmas trees I want to feature.  So, in the spirit of balance today, I've combined a couple of categories into the theme of Mannequins and Motors -   winsome wonders and winning wheels ....  Mannequin and motor oil   Christmas trees  Hubcaps and Mannequin Christmas trees  Not satisfied with auto parts? Decorate with the whole car....  Mannequin and Mini Cooper cars Christmas trees  And tyres seem to be a popular choice and somehow they go beautifully with these 'green' mannequin trees...  Tyres and red ribbons  Tyres and baubles on mannequin Christmas trees  Red bird  wire form and sparkly tyres  Ch...
Post a Comment
Read more