Happy New Year!

Celebrating the new year
by Audrey Wong
January 31, 1995

New Year's Day comes twice a year to San Francisco. The year 1995 started on January 1st. The year of the boar starts today.

While the westernized version of New Year's Eve is usually one day of debauchery, Chinese New Year carries a heavier meaning for many people.

"It's all American holidays rolled into one," Ernest Chan, 50, said. Chan, an amateur historian said, " There's the firecrackers, that's your Fourth of July for you, we exchange gifts like we do for Christmas, a family dinner like Thanksgiving, and we have flowers like Easter."

Chan said traditionally Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festivial is a private holiday, reserved for family, relatives and friends.

Mei Yu, a waitress for Uncle's Cafe in Chinatown said Chinese New Year is a time for family. One day is set aside for the nuclear family where they have a special dinner together. Then the rest of the new year festivities are spent visiting relatives and friends.

Madeline Leung, a member of the Chinese Historical Society, explained the traditions and customs of Chinese New Year in more detail.

"Before the new year, it's time to spruce up. We buy new clothes anad make sure it has some red in it. It's a time for spring cleaning, the whole house is washed, dusted and decorated with flowers....you get all your bills paid so you could start off the new year good," Leung said.

Leung explained anything in the red range symbolizes good luck. That includes oranges and tangerines which are piled in a pyramid shape.

"Piling the oranges means it's closer to heaven," Leung said.

Families offer the pile of citrus fruits to ancestors as a sign of respect. The offerings include burning incense and fake money.

The color red is also incoporated into the lysee or gifts of money tucked into red envelopes. Leung said only married people can give lysee away but everybody gives gifts of candy or oranges.

According to the Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes, by Theodora Lau, the emperor Huang Ti introduced the concept of the lunar calendar 2637 B.C. The lunar calendar runs in 60 year cycles which are further divided into five year cycles of 12 years each.

Lao wrote the concept of animal horoscopes stem from a Buddhist legend. Supposedly Buddha summoned the whole animal kingdom to bid him farewell before he left earth. Only 12 animals came to say good-bye so Buddha rewarded them by naming each year in the cycle after them in the order they arrived. Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

More than a century since the Chinese arrived to the United States to build railroads and mine gold, Chinese New Year remains basically Cantonese, Chan feels. But an influx of modern times, other Chinese ethnicities and American ways have altered Cantonese traditions to a point.

'The parade is definitely American," Chan said.

Subtler details such as food and the amount of lysee have changed.

"In my day, I got 25 cents in a red envelope. Now people put in a lot more money these days," Chan said.

Chan also pointed out Chinese from Singapore will display tropical fruits like durians instead of the usual citrus fruits. People are also going out more for Chinese New Year when they used to stay at home, Chan said.

SF State liberal studies senior Tarina Chau said the United States spends one day celebrating Chinese New Year while in people in China take 10 days off celebrating the New Year.

Chan said the reason for the shortened celebrations is the fact people can't take that much time off work.

Some people pick and choose which traditions to follow.

Dale Chung of the SF Wu Shu Martial Arts team said every person follows the customs to a different amount.

"I'm not going to kill a live chicken for dinner but I won't have knives in the house during Chinese New Year, that makes sense. This is Chinese American, it's a hybrid culture. My parents passed on but I still remember the traditions and I can give that knowledge to different generations," Chung said.

"My mom doesn't burn the incense for our ancestors anymore because she believes in Christ," Melvin Mah, a City College student said.

William Ng said he didn't plan to do anything special for Chinese New year. "I'm just going to get money. I get a day off from Galieo High. I'm just going to stay home," Ng said.

(quoted from http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/www/pubs/gater/spring95/jan31/cele.htm)