Chinese New Year 2010
Chinese New Years
Like it or not Chinese New Year is upon us. February 14th is the first day of Chinese New Year for 2010 and marks the beginning of yet another Lunar year, this one represented by the Tiger. To see a great explanation of Chinese New Year and it’s influence and importance see Wikipedia.
What does it mean today?
Asian culture is amazing how over the centuries it’s traditions have endured through so much war and genocide. Even today watching friends of Asian descent born in the states or raised in the states, they carry on the traditions as the dutiful descendants they are. Some of them the children of families that fled Mainland China, Vietnam, or Cambodia’s communist regime carrying with them this tradition of Chinese New Year and passing it on to the next generations.
For some it is the commercial, family get together that Christmas has become to the world. It is hard to change this notion when the media and businesses have so much to gain from promoting it as a “reason to spend money for gifts”. Ironically money is the number 1 gift at this holiday in those famous little red envelopes.
The most important thing
If you take anything away from this in regards to Chinese New Year remember this, it’s about family. It’s about honoring our ancestors for paving the way. It’s about honoring our living relatives for supporting us now. Lastly it’s about giving to the children to be here to support us in the years to come. In the homes I have been fortunate enough to celebrate Chinese New Year in around the world this is what I always saw.
Food and Chinese New years
The feast of the first day of Chinese New Year is the really big event that I have always enjoyed every time I’ve been included. In one home the meal was prepared and then presented to the door step and incense burned to offer to the ancestors first. Then a place was set for those not present and the rest of us devoured a glorious meal of roasted chicken, steamed fish, noodles, soup and always an assortment of many more foods.
One home I was fortunate to be at in California one year was blessed to have a HUGE family of 15 children to the matriarch and patriarch that had fled Vietnam in the early 70’s. The food of all those families coming together. I remember tasting every kind of flavor and feeling so full afterwards that I shamefully undid the button to my pants as we rested. Needless to say that turned to be quite a compliment to all of the cooks that one that towered almost a full foot over them could feast to the point where his clothes could not contain them. Truly the Prince’s clothing — Sihk Duhk a FOOK, Jeuhk Duhk a Luhk.
How I observe it today
Today my wife and I observe Chinese New Year every year by taking time to go to Dim Sum at one of the local restaurants with friends. This year we’ve added two new friends to the mix and we’re going to Imperial Garden here in Columbus. While being run by a couple that immigrated here from Taiwan, the Chef is from Szechuan in Mainland China and his cooking is some of the best I’ve had in the world. No exaggeration there. I look forward to unbuttoning my pants to make breathing easier on the drive home. Sunday when the day finally comes my boys and I will sit down and talk about our ancestors and what they mean to us. Then when we can we’ll talk about our family today and what we mean to each other.
What does it mean to me today
Chinese New Year is a part of who I am. A quarter of my life I spoke, ate, thought, and breathed in Chinese more than I did in English. Many friends have invited me into their homes to share with them by all accounts the most important 5 days of the year. It signals the coming Spring and coming hope. It is a time to remember the past and look forward to the future. In my own English/American/Chinese way I will be passing this onto my children hoping that it will make an impression on them and they will learn a little of who I am, who their ancestors were, and who they can become.
GUNG HEI FAAT CHOI! — GUNG TSI FA TSAI!
The Comedy of Marriage
Walter Mathau in his long career of acting always seemed to say something in his movies that is funny and true in one breath.
In his movie “Pete ‘n Tillie” he is asked by his on-screen wife Carol Burnett “Honestly, I don’t know how we’ve stayed married for 11 years!”
His response is this one statement “because frankly I’d rather not discuss anything with you than with any other woman in the world.”
What My Great Grandma Taught Me
I was Twelve when my Great Grandma Brightwell died. She was 88 years old. She had lived through the Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, Korean, and Vietnam war. She never saw a computer or had a touch tone phone. In her backyard the outhouse was still there. She didn’t have central air, but she had a great screened in porch in the back.
She lived in Portsmouth, Ohio. Her house was nothing extravagent except that the pocket doors were real woodwork. The bannister was big enough for a small boy to slide down. Her picture frames were all hand made. Details that today we pass over for convenience or price but when she was my age, that’s all they had.
She was tenacious. She was over 80 and she still insisted on cooking for us when we came. She had people come in to clean but she would rather do it herself. She had great stories. Not about drinking or living it up, but of experiences of swimming in the Ohio River, or rescuing her prized possession from a flood.
As many people were that lived through the depression she was a packrat. She never let anything go to waste. She would scrape butter back if we would let her.
As a small boy of 6 or 7 I let off a mace bomb in the house. She cursed me for hours as we had to sit outside with all of the fans going to try to clear it out. I thought for sure Mom was going to skin me, but because grandma was there I didn’t have any worries.
My great grandma taught me to value family. It was never too much trouble to do something for family. Cooking or cleaning or treating us to ice cream.
She taught me that we stand up and do what we believe in. She was the Republican Party Chairperson for her county for decades when it wasn’t fashionable to be a republican.
She taught me to respect my elders because they know more than I do and would probably still lick me if I got out of hand, even at 80+ years of age.
Most important she taught me to remember my past and don’t forget to learn from it. Our past is the only thing we carry with us no matter where we go. Names, people, places, fortunes all change but who we are and where we come from never do.