Celebrating the Lunar New Year

In the United States, New Year's celebrations are synonymous with champagne and football. Resolutions are usually an afterthought, and when they are forgotten within the first weeks of January, nobody really cares. But in some Asian countries the Lunar New Year ushers in a real new beginning.

"Chinese New Year is more like Christmas in America," said Lily Yu, president of the San Diego Chinese Cultural Association. "The family gets together and we give money or gifts, and we eat a lot."

Though the Lunar New Year is celebrated among Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean communities—everybody celebrates it differently.

For Chinese, who comprise one-third of the world's population, 2011 rings in the Year of the Rabbit.

In the days leading up to the celebration, Chinese clean their houses, repair or get rid of broken objects, pay their debts and make peace if they've squabbled with anyone during the previous year.

"On New Year's Eve the younger generation comes back from other towns where they are working to have a big dinner," Yu said. "Parents or grandparents give out the red envelopes with money in them."

These red envelopes are called lai see in Cantonese or hong bao in Mandarin. 

Also on New Year's Eve, families honor the ancestors who made their lives possible. Then at midnight they open all the doors and windows to let go of the old year's energy. The next day everyone puts away the brooms and brushes.

"You don't sweep the floor that day so you don't sweep money and good things away," Yu said.

For the same reason, celebrants don't cut their hair or wash it on New Year's Day. But they do dress up in new clothes—preferably red, for good luck—and greet their friends and neighbors with "Gung Hay Fat Choy," which means "wishing you good fortune" in Cantonese. To celebrate, they do a lion or dragon dance and play music.

Good health is as much a goal of the Lunar New Year as it is for the people who join gyms and start diets in the West, so on that day people don't speak with anyone who is in mourning or mention dying or say the number four, which rhymes with the word "death" in Chinese.

Red paper cutouts festooned with lucky characters hang in doors and windows. Legend has it that a monster once came into villages each year and ate one of the children, but when a baby was wrapped in red, it was spared because the monster feared the color. The firecrackers thought to scare the monster away also remain a part of the celebration.

Other New Year's decorations are bright yellow mums and paper gold bricks or ingots to represent prosperity. Oranges, tangerines and persimmons signify health, good relationships and abundance.

The foods served at a New Year's banquet also have special meanings. Egg rolls and rice cakes cut into bar shapes are deep-fried to a golden color to herald the arrival of money. Dumplings with meat inside are wrapped in the shape of gold nuggets, often with a coin inside just one for special good luck. Munching melon seeds portends having children, and serving sweets on round trays signifies togetherness.

A whole fish finishes off the New Year's feast. Because everyone is full by the time it is served, it symbolizes excess.

Many Westerners have begun to adopt these customs, and Chinese New Year parties are a bright addition to the chilly months of winter. But do you have to adhere strictly to all these cultural tenets? Not at all.

The important thing is to gather friends for a meal that can be as simple as takeout. Asian import shops market a wide variety of decorations, clothing and red envelopes. Ask your guests to wear something Chinese—even if it's only a piece of costume jewelry.

For entertainment, read the zodiac sign of everyone in attendance. Anyone born in the Year of the Rabbit, for example, is articulate, talented, lucky and has good manners. Last year's tigers are brave and independent.