A Lucky Start to Chinese New Year

Sometime between taking a bite of white clumped rice and passing the steamed fish, I realized that even small actions like these could determine my destiny in the coming year.

According to Chinese superstition, that is. Chinese New Year’s Day, Feb. 10, is a date that signifies the beginning of the 10th year in the cycle of the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Dog. Rather than being just a twist on zodiac astrology, the Chinese New Year--and the new year in a number of other cultures--is based on a lunar calendar. The calendar is based on the phases of the moon, which signaled to the ancient farmers when to plant and when to harvest.

Chinese New Year’s Day traditionally falls on the day after the crops are all harvested, when it is a time to feast on the plentiful abundance that hard work has produced and secure a new start for another lucky year.

The plate of fish in my hand, covered with green onion and ginger, is traditionally cooked whole even though there is a risk of an eyeball dislodging and rolling across the plate as it is served. The fish represents prosperity in the coming year, and no matter how little it is, there is always meat left on the plate to symbolize abundance so great that there are leftovers.

Other foods eaten on Chinese New Year’s Day include boiled baby spinach plants that have to be consumed in one bite, roots and all, even if the mouthful makes soy sauce dribble down your chin. The spinach plants represent longevity, and biting one in two would be cutting your life short. Eating glutinous desserts made from sweet rice flour gives “sweet” success in your job or work in the year to come.

The real work begins on the night before the Chinese New Year commences. During that evening, the entire house must be thoroughly cleaned for a fresh start in the new year, and all preparations must be made for the feast and festivities the next day.

“If you do any work on the first day of the new year, even if you pick up a broom,” my mother said, wagging her finger at me, “that means your entire year will be filled with hard, unfulfilling labor.”

Though relaxing during the day does not necessarily guarantee a vacation during the entire year, it is a time where children can play and be as naughty as they want without being subject to their parents’ disapproval. Any anger or unhappiness expressed on New Year’s Day will mean strife between family members for the rest of the year.

Much like an American holiday, keeping peace in the household becomes difficult when it involves the gathering of family and relatives for a feast. Once again, however, the children gain an advantage because each relative presents them with an elongated, perfumed red envelope embossed with gold Chinese characters for luck and fortune. Red, the traditional color representing luckiness, complements the gold printing, which stands for gold and wealth.

Upon carefully lifting the edge of a red envelope, a child discovers that the inside is filled with crisp, new money and best wishes from his or her elders for the upcoming year.

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With money in hand and a sweet taste in their mouths from eating desserts, the family then piles into the car, careful not to let arguments ensue about who is to sit in the front seat, to head for a Chinatown, where the annual Chinese Dragon Parade takes place.

The dragon, a long, snake-like beast with colored scales as variable as the rainbow, is supported by a file of men who duck, dive and zigzag down the street to animate a dragon chasing a large white pearl, another symbol of wealth. Its head, with a green snout and fiery eyes, wags and shakes as it parades a crooked path. The surrounding crowd waves and cheers at the dragon’s awkward movements in reaching the pearl, then laughs when the pearl slips out from under its nose again.

In conjunction with an old Chinese legend, strings of noisy red firecrackers are set off simultaneously with the discord of the drums and cymbals of the parade.

The tradition of igniting firecrackers on the first day of Chinese New Year is said to have originated as an attempt by a widow to save her toddler son from a ravenous marine beast that came each New Year’s Day to feast on the humans of a seaside village. The mother scared off the beast by setting off fireworks made of bamboo and yelling as she banged on pots and pans.

The same clanging sound with glass upon glass startles me out of my reverie and, lifting my cup with my family around the table, we toast the New Year with goodwill greetings.

And, as my attention focuses on the faces surrounding me, the thought remains that if one auspicious day could actually become a prediction of the future, then I would indeed have a very lucky year.