Chinese New Year | Chinese New Year Celebrations Part 2

During Chinese New Year Period

Celebrations for Chinese New Year last up to fifteen days.  Chinese families celebrate Chinese New Year by visiting relatives and friends. The junior members in the family visit the elders to offer new year greetings and well wishes. The offering of two mandarin oranges symbolise that you are bringing wealth to the family that you visit. Everyone carries a ready smile to indicate a year filled with happiness and laughter.

Abundant food and drinks are served in every family. Sweet tea brewed using red dates, preserved winter melon, persimmons and longans is served to everyone in the family. This ensures each word that everyone utters is nice and sweet to the ears.

Many Buddhists abstain from meat on the first day of Chinese New Year, as it is believed to bring them longevity.

Everyone wears brightly coloured new clothes and shoes to symbolically enter the year with a clean slate and to cast off the past year’s bad luck. The colour red is popularly used for clothes and in most house decorations.

Throughout the celebrations, it is customary to greet each other ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’ which means, ‘have a prosperous new year’, or ‘Nian Nian You Yu’ which means ‘Wishing you an abundant year’.

Second Day Of Chinese New Year

On the second day of Chinese New Year, the Chinese pray to their ancestors as well as to all the gods. This is also the day where married daughters visit their parents to offer new year wishes.  Traditionally, daughters who are married may not have the chance to visit their own parents often.

Seventh Day Of Chinese New Year

The seventh day of Chinese New Year is traditionally known as ‘Renri’, which literally means ‘human day’ and is considered to be the birthday of all ordinary and common people. It is the day when everyone becomes one year older. It is also the day in countries like Singapore and Malaysia, when the Chinese family, friends or business associates gather to toss and eat ‘Yusheng’, a kind of raw fish salad mixed with shredded vegetables, crushed peanuts, pomelo, spices and sauces. Everyone will toss the colourful salad together high into the air with chopsticks and auspicious words are shouted out loudly. Everyone makes their wishes for wealth, health, good luck and prosperity for the new year. This practice is believed to welcome prosperity for the coming year.

Tossing ‘Yusheng’ To Usher In A Prosperous and Auspicious New Year

Steps In Preparing ‘Yusheng’ For ‘Loh Hei’;

1. Everyone gathers around the table where the ‘Yusheng’ is. Greetings like ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’, ‘Wan Shi Ru Yi’ and ‘Xing Nian Kuai Lei’ are exchanged. As each ingredients is added into a big plate, auspicious words are mentioned by the person preparing the ‘Yusheng’.
2. Strips of Raw Fish is first added.
   ‘Nian Nian You Yu’
   Symbolising surplus and abundance.
3. Pomelo is added over the fish.
   Alternatively, squeeze a lemon or lime.
   ’Da Ji Da Li’
   Symbolising good luck and auspiciousness.
4. Pour the Oil ( golden in colour) and circled around the ingredients.
   ’Cai Yuan Guang Jin’
   Symbolise the strong inflow of wealth.
5. Shredded Carrots are added.
   ’Hong Yun Dang Tou’
   Indicating the arrival of good luck.
6. Shredded Green Radish is added.
   ’Qing Chun Chang Zhu’
   Symbolising eternal youth.
7. Shredded White Radish is added.
   ’Bu Bu Gao Sheng’
   Symbolising promotion at work or increase in business profits.
8. Crushed Peanuts are added on the dish.
   ’Jin Yin Man Di’
   Symbolising  the overflowing of gold and silver.
9. Sesame Seeds are added.
   ’Sheng Yi Xing Long’
   Symbolising a flourishing and prosperous business.
10. Pepper (in red sachet) and Five-Spice Powder (in green sachet) are sprinkled over the ingredients.
    ’Shuang Xi Ling Men’
    Symbolising the showers of blessings for double happiness.
11. Plum Sauce is added on top of all the ingredients.
    ’Tian Tian Mi Mi’
    Symbolising that life will be sweet.
12. Deep-Fried Golden Crisps are added.
    ’Pian Di Huang Jin’
    The ground is completely filled with gold.
13. Finally everyone tosses the ‘Yusheng’ salad high in the air with chopsticks shouting out ‘Loh Hei’ (in Cantonese) loudly, followed by ‘Yue Lao Yue Qi, Lao Dao Feng Shen Shui Qi’. ‘Loh Hei’ means ‘tossing for good luck’. ‘Yue Lao Yue Qi, Lao Dao Feng Shen Shui Qi’ means ‘the higher you toss it, the better your luck, till good luck becomes so overwhelming’. Other auspicious words and wishes are also shouted..

Fifteenth Day Of Chinese New Year

The fifteenth day of the new year is known as ‘Yuan Xiao Jie’. Chinese families cook glutinous rice ball known as ‘Tang Yuan’ in Chinese. ‘Tang Yuan’ is round in shape and resembles the shape of the full moon. It symbolises ‘togetherness, completeness or perfection’. These are rounded sweet glutinous rice balls cook in soup with rock sugar. Everyone in the family will gather to eat the ‘Tang Yuan’ on this day. ‘Yuan Xiao Jie’ is also celebrated as the Lantern Festival. You will be able to see children carrying lighted lanterns on the playgrounds and along the streets. This day also marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

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