9/3/2023 0 Comments Ready lunar year![]() ![]() This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Here's how you can join the festivities with your family. The fruit is “a show of hospitality,” he said, but it’s also a way to show the guests that “they’re thinking about you and care for you and love you.” Ready for the year of the rabbit Lunar New Year begins on January 22 this year. Whether it comes wrapped in a box or sliced on a plate, fruit is seen in many Asian cultures as a silent gesture of love, said Randy Su, 22, of Toronto, who is studying for his master’s degree in teaching.Īt Su’s home on Lunar New Year, his parents serve plates of cut fruit “like a party tray” to their guests, he said. “It’s hard in many Asian American cultures to say the words ‘I love you,’” she said, “so they do it through serving these special delicacies.” Fruit can also be purchased in neatly packed gift boxes at grocery stores. Some families grow their own tangerines or kumquats to give away, while others give roots or seeds from fruit plants in their yards. Linda Trinh Vo, a professor of Asian American studies at the University of California, Irvine, said fruit was “a language of love” during Lunar New Year and that it could be given in many ways. “There was never cake or ice cream,” he said, but “there are always cut fruits.” Duong’s parents always cut up the fruit and placed it in the refrigerator so it was ready to be served right after the main course, said Duong, 36, a health care worker. In addition to oranges and apples, they often had dragon fruit and star fruit, which are supposed to bring good luck. They also give bags of tangerines as gifts.Īt Viet Duong’s house in Houston, after everyone’s bellies were full of curry and caramelized salted tofu during the New Year celebration, they would dig into something else: fruit. That is why Wu’s family makes sure to eat plenty of kumquats and oranges over the New Year. Free Shipping & Returns on Every Order for Red Tab Members Details. Golden-hued fruits like oranges, tangerines and kumquats are believed to bring wealth to those who eat them, their gold colors reminiscent of money. 10 Off + Free Shipping On Your First Order Details. Apples are said to bring peace to those who eat them, because the Chinese word for “apple” sounds like the word meaning “peaceful.” The same goes for pomelos and the protection they offer. The festivities culminate in Lantern Festival, when families will process through the streets with their New Year lanterns, bringing New Year to a close.Still, it is widely agreed that some types of fruit, because of their names or colors, are lucky. Younger members of the family are often given gifts of money inside red envelopes. New Year is also time for visiting friends and family gatherings. On the first day of New Year the dusters are put away to avoid sweeping away good luck. The cleaning sweeps away bad luck and leaves room ready for good luck to enter. In the days preceding New Year Chinese families give their homes a thorough ‘spring clean’. However, the villagers discovered that Nian was afraid of the colour red.and thus each New Year the villagers would hang out red lanterns to scare Nian away and use firecrackers too. Nian would arrive on the first day of the New Year to terrorise villagers. The festivities last for 15 days, ending on the day known as Lantern Festival.Ĭhinese mythology suggests the origins of New Year are concerned with a battle against a monster called Nian (meaning ‘year’ in Chinese). The timing of the festival is determined by the new moon, so does not fall on the same day each year, but always occurs in either January or early February. It is also celebrated in many other Asian countries, where it is known as Lunar New Year. Lunar / Chinese New Year is a major festival celebrated in China and in the many countries around the world that have an ethnic Chinese population - including the UK. ![]()
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