Happy New Year!
Happy New Year (新年快乐) to you all! May the Year of the Monkey bring you good health, happiness, and love <3
As many of you know, I am a mixed-race baby (of Chinese and Scottish heritage)! I love being able to celebrate DOUBLE the amount of holidays, and Chinese New Year is definitely one of the more important events :) There are many festivities to partake in, but here are just a few of the family traditions I look forward to every year:
Homemade sesame peanut brittle and twisty fried dough cookies (Ma Fah)! When I see these two tasty snacks show up at home, I know New Year's is just around the corner! I have a great-aunt who spends hours making these treats in big batches for the whole family - and we all LOVE them!
Wishing all my older relatives "Gong Hay Fat Choy" - my family speaks Hakka mostly with some other dialects thrown in, but unfortunately I do not. Hakka was actually my first language, so I do understand it, but I end up replying in English. But there are no passes on Chinese New Year! I have to try my best to struggle through the phrases :)
Red packets of $$$ (we call "fong-bao") are given to all the children in the family by all the older, married relatives. I'm slowly approaching the age where I'll have to do the giving and not the receiving, but for now this is still what me and my cousins look forward to! Hehe!
Taking the day off! Not a lot of my friends observe this tradition, but my Ah-Kung (grandpa) did, and I definitely do as well. He believed that if you worked on New Year's Day, you would face hard work for the rest of your life. He never took any other days off, and was not late ONCE in his entire career (no seriously, he won a recognition award for it), but he firmly believed that New Year's was for resting.
Reading my Chinese astrological horoscope. I think I'm the only one in my family who diligently pores over their horoscope, and I'm always asking my friends and coworkers for their sign so I can check theirs too. I am a Horse, just in case you were curious ;) Of course, it's all in good fun. I've read some that say this will be the year my luck with change for the better, and others that say that this year will be even worse than the last.
Whether you celebrate or not, I wish you and your loved ones all the best!