By Ashley Yen ‘14

While many students already may have quit on their new year’s resolutions, others are still waiting to celebrate their new year.

Tomorrow, January 31, Lunar New Year will be celebrated around the world. It is a holiday celebrated by different Asian cultures and is determined by the lunisolar calendar.
Chinese New Year is celebrated in many Asian countries where Chinese populations flourish. Melody Chan, a senior who used to live in Hong Kong, compares her experiences from Hong Kong to now in America. “I would say Chinese New Year basically sums up Chinese culture. It’s red, loud with money, family and food. It’s like Christmas for the Chinese,” Chan explained. “Also, in Hong Kong they get a whole month off for Chinese New Year because this is the time where people travel back to their hometown.”

The lunar calendar is determined by the moon phase and the time of the solar year. This calendar system is different than the Gregorian calendar that is used here the United States. Celebrations around this time include Vietnamese New Year (Tết Nguyên Đán), Chinese New Year, Korean New Year (Seollal), Monogolian New Year (Tsagaan Sar) and Tibetan New Year. There are many different traditions that are practiced. In Chinatowns such as in Washington D.C, New York City and San Francisco, there are always large festivals on the streets with parades and lion dances.
Traditionally in Hong Kong, Chan would have a traditional breakfast with “New Year’s only” radish and sweet rice cakes made by her grandparents. Afterwards, they would visit family friends and receive red envelopes with money inside. “But now in America we just all gather in a Chinese restaurant or grandparent’s house and have breakfast and collect red envelopes all at once. We are supposed to say something nice and also wishes to another when we ask for a red envelope,” Chan explained.
Yuna Oh, who celebrates Korean New Year described her experience as getting together with family and friends and eating many traditional foods, including one called “ddeokgguk” which is rice cake soup. This soup symbolizes having a new clean slate for the New Year and is a main dish that every Korean eats. “Some people also wear the traditional clothes called hanbok and bow to the elders and older people in the family, and they give us money when we bow to them,” said Oh. “I think it’s pretty important in Korea but now that I moved here, it’s not as big as it was before.”

Celebrating Vietnamese New Year, sophomore Thi Nguyen described her celebrations as going to church for a special mass and then over to a relative’s house to pray for their grandparents and other relatives who have passed away. After they eat, they all line up in front of each relative and wish for them to have good health and to make a lot of money for the New Year. “Once we’re done they give us a red envelope with money inside. Some traditional foods we eat includes moon cakes (banh chung) and sticky rice cake (ban tet). Also, the Vietnamese women wear these nice traditional dresses called ao dai,” Nguyen described.