Each week, we share a meal at Cross Cultures, but this was a particularly special dinner because we celebrated Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year, which is today. When I was in middle school, I did a massive research project on China, and my favourite part was learning about the festivals and holidays that took place there because... well, who doesn't like celebrations?
The Lunar New Year is the most important holiday in many countries in Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Macau. Since the majority of the group at Cross Cultures consists of those who are from Asian countries, it was interesting to hear about what traditions are typically practiced during this holiday in different parts of the continent. For instance, one of the traditions is to clean the house, which signifies sweeping away the past and any bad luck that may linger to make room for the good luck. Old debts are repaid and
people do their best to repair any broken friendships. Additionally, children stay up late the night before to either help their parents have long lives or to have long lives themselves; there were different opinions on this tradition. It's popular to have family gatherings, called reunion dinners, on New Year's Eve and for red envelopes with money to be given to anyone who's not married. Even though we never properly celebrated the holiday in my family, we did acknowledge that it was Chinese New Year and I remember receiving the red packets from my grandfather and parents when I was younger. In the northern parts of China, dumplings are customarily eaten.
On Thursday, we ate noodles with vegetables and meat for dinner and later had the opportunity to make our own dumplings by wrapping filling in dough. For dessert, we drank bubble tea, which is black tea with tapioca pearls. I've had it a few times, mostly when I was studying in Ithaca, but before this meal with Cross Cultures, the last time I had had it was at the mall when I was home. It was my friend's first time drinking it, but it was slightly entertaining since she wasn't a fan of the texture of the tapioca pearls, which I have to admit is something we have in common.
In continuing with the Chinese New Year celebrations, over the weekend, a couple friends and I ventured out to Box Hill, which I had been told has a high Chinese population, to check out the festivities there. We walked around for a bit and had a chance to try sugarcane juice, which was a little too sweet for even my liking. The police were handing out fortune cookies and mine read, "The year has the prospect for a thrilling adventure for you" or something to that effect. Then we met other friends for a light lunch and dessert at
one of the restaurants there. I meant to stick around until the lion dance, but I ended up returning to my apartment for a while before heading back to Box Hill for the nighttime events since it would have been too long of a day to just stay there. The lion dance ended up happening over two hours after I had expected it to so I walked around a little more and watched a few of the performances, which ranged from a mediocre pop band and a woman singing glorified karaoke of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga [ick....] to a Chinese rock band that wasn't half bad; if only more of their songs had been sung in English. The lion dance was exciting to watch
though and well worth the wait. At the end, the performers shot off firecrackers to celebrate the arrival of the new year.
Tonight I'm meeting friends in Chinatown to enjoy a dumpling dinner in honor of the Lunar New Year. It should be fun.
I read somewhere that the Year of the Dragon represents mobility and change, mostly from bad to good, so we'll see what this year has in store for us all.
On Thursday, we ate noodles with vegetables and meat for dinner and later had the opportunity to make our own dumplings by wrapping filling in dough. For dessert, we drank bubble tea, which is black tea with tapioca pearls. I've had it a few times, mostly when I was studying in Ithaca, but before this meal with Cross Cultures, the last time I had had it was at the mall when I was home. It was my friend's first time drinking it, but it was slightly entertaining since she wasn't a fan of the texture of the tapioca pearls, which I have to admit is something we have in common.
one of the restaurants there. I meant to stick around until the lion dance, but I ended up returning to my apartment for a while before heading back to Box Hill for the nighttime events since it would have been too long of a day to just stay there. The lion dance ended up happening over two hours after I had expected it to so I walked around a little more and watched a few of the performances, which ranged from a mediocre pop band and a woman singing glorified karaoke of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga [ick....] to a Chinese rock band that wasn't half bad; if only more of their songs had been sung in English. The lion dance was exciting to watch
though and well worth the wait. At the end, the performers shot off firecrackers to celebrate the arrival of the new year.
No comments:
Post a Comment