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The Days of New Year

Part 2. The actual days of Tet. I’m glad that you enjoyed the explanation what we do before the new year. Hopefully I’ll get a lot of pictures while we are celebrating with my family, but I wanted to post this early to give you an idea of what we’ll be doing. It really does go by quickly. I hope that I remember everything.

New Year, New Clothes, New You

A lot of people buy new clothes to wear on new year’s day. I don’t. Well, I do for Chloe, but only because she’s a little budding fashionista and adores new clothes. (**It really is too bad that her mommy knows NOTHING about fashion. Really, she’s lucky that she’s not in black tees and jeans every single day. I used to not buy her any clothes for xmas because when I was younger I hated getting clothes for xmas and didn’t want to do that to my daughter. Well, last year, she got plenty of clothes from other relatives and would go bonkers over them. She was genuinely happy to receive clothes. Every box she opened was: “oh, that is so beautiful!” Needless to say, Santa didn’t make that mistake again and got her plenty of cute things to wear. Sorry, back to the topic. . .) From what my mom says, most people wear new clothes because it’s a holiday and they’re dressing up. While it’s not necessarily tradition I did want to make note of it because most of my family will get all decked out in new clothes, even the men.

Bring it on.

The luck, that is. Here are some of the things done in the name of ensuring a good year. I hope I can remember them all. Don’t shower. Showering is said to wash the luck off of you (because the day before you showered to wash the Bad stuff off). Don’t do housework, especially sweeping. I have heard that you would be sweeping the luck away. A lot of these things are setting the pace for what you want for the rest of the year. Things you want to happen should be done this day, for example, putting money in the bank. My mom gets all giddy with excitement when payday falls on new year. Sometimes, she will take money out a day or two before just so she can put the money back in on the day of new year. And, for the same reason, money should not be taken out of the bank the day of new year. My family never works on new year. Everyone takes the day off if they are scheduled to work. It’s so that you’re not having to work too hard all year. Oh, and my favorite part of this – my mom tells me that I shouldn’t cook because she considers that working. Yay!
Tangerine exchange.

I don’t know why this one is done, but if you know why, please tell me. I’ve asked my mom and she didn’t care to elaborate further than to say that I still had to do it. I think she doesn’t know why either. (**I think it’s funny that at 28 years old my mom can still be upset at my incessant why questions.) What we do is the whole family goes in on boxes of tangerines (this isn’t tradition, this is because it’s cheaper that way). We each take what we need. I’ll need about 26 tangerines. For the 3 days of new year we’re required to visit every family’s house and the tangerine exchange is done when you visit. Example: I go to my mom’s house. I place four tangerine’s on her table with a li xi (red envelope) on top of the tangerine’s – it has to be exactly four and the tangerine’s have to be stacked a certain way. My mom takes two tangerine’s and the li xi. She then places another li xi on the remaining tangerines. I take the two tangerines and the li xi. That exchange is done every single time I go to someone’s house and someone comes to my house. I always have to make a small stack of li xi envelopes set aside specifically for this ritual.

Speaking of li xi.

I think receiving li xi is always everyone’s favorite part. Here’s the whole deal with li xi. Li xi is a red envelope, usually with a cute design on the front, that you put money in to give to people – those people are usually young children. From what I can gather, it’s rude to put coins and only bills are ever put in there. For new year, I usually put $5 for each niece or nephew or cousin, and, of course, my own child. My mom and aunts and uncles do $10 in theirs. For children that I don’t know, but accidentally run into that day at temple or at someone’s house, I have a stack of $2 li xi that I give to them. (The li xi for the tangerine exchange is $1 or $2.) Every family is different about their own rules for giving. Some base it on how old you are. My family uses marriage as the indicator. When I got married I took on the responsibility of giving. I give to all of my unmarried children, cousins, nieces/nephews. When they get married I will stop giving to them. I don’t receive li xi anymore. I have a cousin who is in her 30’s, and because she’s never been married, she doesn’t give li xi – she still gets them. Like I said, this depends on the family. I know families that will base this more on age. As you see family members and friends and friends of friends we always greet each other with new year wishes (there are several phrases that you can say wishing for different things, for example, we usually wish the children a good education – that’s not a direct translation, I don’t know how the direct translation would sound – and for adults you can wish good health or prosperity). After my unmarried family members greet me is when I can give them li xi.

Temple

The first thing that I always do on new year day is go to temple. It’s always a big affair and I always see tons of family and friends that I don’t usually see the rest of the year. It’s always a good atmosphere, everyone is so excited. Technically, the day of new year you’re not supposed to eat meat (this is more a religious thing than a cultural thing). Some members of my family follow it, and others don’t. After praying at temple and eating a vegetarian lunch, the family visits start.

House to house to house

My sister lives in a very small town, mostly white. Not much going on to celebrate Chinese New Year. She’s complained about not having the resources to expose her children to new year celebrations. My mom has told her that the most important thing that she can do is visit family. Spend time with your family. We do the same. I’ve said before that we celebrate for three days. Honestly, most of those three days are spent visiting family, and when you have such a large family you really do need three days. So I have three days to make it to everyone’s house to spend time with them, enjoying each other’s company, and completing the tangerine exchange. When family comes to visit you, you should have food and tea to offer. There are a lot of different snacks that we have. There are sugared coconuts, and sugared wintermelon (my personal favorite), peanut brittle, sesame candies, and all sorts of nuts and cakes.

After new year purchases

There is one purchase that is done after the new year is over.   We buy a new purse (or wallet, or pants, depending on where you usually put your money).  It’s to help bring in money during the year.  A new purse will be a full purse. 

Have a Happy New Year!! I wish you and your family a prosperous year surrounded by family and friends.

The Days Before New Year

I was asked to share our family traditions for Tet (Chinese New Year). My family mixes Chinese and Vietnamese traditions. I’ll do this in a two-part series because there’s just so much. This is the first part – prep, or the days before new year. The second part will be the actual new year stuff.  Every family celebrates differently.  I’ve known families that will celebrate for two weeks, families that only do the one day.  My family does 3 days of new year.  Before we celebrate, though, there is a lot that I have to get done before the new year.

Stomp that bad stuff!

We buy brand new shoes before the new year.  The day before new year is when we wear them for the very first time.  My mom says that it is to stomp on all of the bad things that happened the past year to get rid of it.   So, the whole family gets new shoes.  Most of the traditions are specifically for either getting rid of bad luck or bringing good luck to you.  I always get a chuckle out of this one stomping through the house with new shoes, imagining the little bits of bad getting thrown off of me.

Come bearing gifts

There are a lot of gift exchanges for new year.  The first gift exchange is family to family and is usually food.  I usually buy packages of sausage.  The sausages are gifts from my family to each of my aunts and uncles families, my parents, my married cousins, and so on.  My mom buys everyone mushrooms.  My uncle gives everyone banh tet – this is the one I look forward to the most.  Banh tet is a colorful sticky rice with mung bean in the middle and is a traditional food from Southern Vietnam (in Northern Vietnam they eat something very similar called banh chung).  I usually cut some for breakfast, fry it in a pan, and sprinkle a little bit of sugar on it.  It is yummy and I look forward to it every year.  I’ll be eating that for the next couple of weeks every morning for breakfast.   This particular gift exchange is done before the new year, family to family.

Rich in food.

One of the consistent themes is trying to have an abundance of things that you will want to have during the year.  It’s no surprise that food is one of the things seen as very important.  To show an abundance of food we make sure that our rice bucket is completely full.  This way you will be rich in food during the year.  (Just as a side note: I noticed filling our rice bucket is also part of things we do after a loved one passes away.  It’s because we believe that their spirit wants to make sure their family is going to be okay so that they can rest in peace.  Having your rice bucket full, among other things, conveys the message that we have food and are taken care of.  I always thought that was nice.)

 Clean house, clean people.

Ah, yes.  Cleaning the house.  The house should be cleaned before new year’s.  If anything, you will have guests during new year’s, so it’ll be nice to have a clean house for them, but the reasoning behind it is to again get rid of all the bad stuff from the previous year.  Also, the day before new year’s you are supposed to shower to get rid of the bad stuff,  and the day of new year’s you can’t shower.  That is because you then don’t want to wash any of the good stuff off.  Don’t worry, you can shower the day after new year.  Many things are done the day or days before new year to get rid of any residual bad stuff, then a lot of things are done on new year’s day to retain all of the good stuff.

It’s all about family.

Family is important.   I love that my family places so much value on family.  The day before new year we all get together for a family reunion and have a big family feast; it is loud and it is crowded and it is yummy.  We eat all kinds of food.  The ones that my family makes the biggest deal about:  seaweed and round food.  Seaweed, for reasons completely unknown to me, represents money.  Eating the seaweed will help bring money this coming year.  I don’t remember what kind of luck the round food is for, but I’m sure it’s lucky for something.  My aunt usually makes a dumpling dessert with a sweet ginger broth, and it’s my husband’s favorite so they’re always giving him big bowls of it.
**Well, I think I got it all.  That’s all stuff for before new year’s.  Next time I’ll talk about what my family does for the 3 days of Chinese New Year.

*ETA:  I knew I would forget something:

Being Thankful

About 2 weeks before the new year my whole family goes to temple.  It is specifically to give thanks for the blessings of the past year.  It is humbling to go as you are gearing up for a new, fantastic year to go to temple and contemplate all that you have.

Gearing Up for Tet

 

 

 

Chloe is finally getting better since getting sick over a week ago. I’m spending this week getting all caught up on the should-have-done’s of the past week and a half, mostly things for the upcoming new year. I have a love/hate relationship with Chinese New Year. I do love it just because I love holidays and love family time, and quite frankly, the food is fantastic at new years and the sheer amount of food is phenomenal. What I hate is how everything has to be done just so. It can make me paranoid, especially with all of the “do this for good luck” things added to the list. All the usual paranoia aside, the house needs to be cleaned, the rice bucket needs to be filled, shoes need to be bought, and red envelopes need to be stuffed. I think I’m in need of a dull moment.