The dates of Chinese New Year are different from year to year. Unlike Christmas Day which is always on 25 December, Chinese New Year dates are directed by the lunisolar calendar, hence they change every year. This year the first day falls on 12 February.
For many Chinese, whether living at home or abroad, New Year is a significant festival. We down tools, travel home, spring clean, shop and prepare lots of festive foods, wear new outfits and meet with family and friends to celebrate together. Growing up in Hong Kong, I recall the excitement and celebrations. The gatherings with the extended family were filled with food, lively conversations and sometimes chaos. In most homes, the kitchen is a tiny room and the cooking facility is really just two gas rings, sometimes even the fridge is in the living area, but somehow dish after dish of steaming hot food would come out. For me, it was nothing but a miracle (while not quite feeding the five thousand, it was no mean feat). I can still remember the dishes, whole steamed fish with ginger and spring onions, big juicy prawns, steamed chicken, roast goose, crispy roast pork belly, a plethora of dishes that have significant auspicious meanings (good luck, wholeness, happiness, success, wealth, and so on) and always a big pot of soup that would have been simmering for hours. Rice although a staple, was a mere feature, no one really bothered eating much of that! We didn’t really have room for desserts but about an hour later, out would come the New Year cake, they were first steamed, chilled then cut into slices, pan fried and served hot. Chewy, sticky and not too sweet, I love it. Also there would be a red lacquered box with multiple compartments, each one would hold a kind of sweetmeat, melon seeds, standard confectionery like fruit “Chewits”, “White Rabbit” milk sweets, boiled sweets, chocolate coins, nutty brittles as well as traditional jellies that were sweetened with dates and black sugar. We also had lots of fried treats, as Chinese kitchens seldom had ovens, deep fat frying added a lot of flavour. My Po Po (maternal grandmother) used to make pastries filled with a sugar, peanut, sesame and coconut filling, then deep fried. They are still my sister’s favourite, now thankfully Mum is creating her own recipe so we can reminisce childhood. If I were to tell you more about the food, this blog will go on and on……
We would also decorate our homes with lively and cheerful colours, reds, pinks, purples, oranges and yellows. Unlike cut flower bouquets, live plants grown from bulbs tend to more popular. It is not uncommon to find narcissus, cherry blossom, kumquat, gladioli, gracing homes and restaurant entrances everywhere you go.
Living in London my family and I have simplified the way we celebrate Chinese New Year. Unfortunately the pandemic has restricted us even more but thanks to technology, we can watch it online pretending we were at the table together. But we live in hope that one day we will celebrate significant dates together, religious or secular, whatever faith or none.
With the words of Psalm 23:5, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Happy New Year, “sun-lin-fai-lok”!
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