This weekend is the Chinese/Lunar New Year, also known as Tet for the Vietnamese.
I always found Asian New Year celebrations better than the regular New Year celebrations. The traditions and all it entails are more fun and I love that it brings family together. It’s a time to celebrate, with food, games, money, family and friends.
As a kid I loved receiving li xi (lucky red envelopes) and counting all the money I would get and thinking of all the ridiculous, useless things I don’t need, to spend it on. Of course, my mom would always take it away from me at the end of the night, insisting she was “keeping it safe” for me. In the end, she probably was, because, as stated, I would’ve thrown it away on garbage toys and other tchotchkes. Now as an adult, and married as well, I’m no longer allowed to receive envelopes but rather it’s my turn to give. They symbolize you passing on good luck and fortune to others, and in turn, it will come back double to you. There are also a lot of little fun games with dice, paper and numbers played. One year, my husband gambled with the kids and almost gambled my car away because he lost all his New Year money to them but wanted to keep playing, haha!
I didn’t appreciate the food back then when I was young but now I’m all about it. I love being able to pick from many different dishes at one meal and this celebration is no exception. A traditional New Year meal has many different dishes due to the different symbolism attached with each dish and animal, as well as differing a little bit from culture to culture (i.e. I commonly see dumplings, fish and spring rolls in Chinese gatherings, but for Vietnamese, I see more banh tet, gio cha (Vietnamese ham), and thit kho usually. My mom always makes banh tet, which takes an entire day to prep and another day to cook. She always makes a big batch to give away to friends and family.
I haven’t celebrated Tet with my extended family in a while, due to work and adult life schedules but I try to at least spend some time with my immediate family. I was off this year so I spent the day with my sisters. We gram toured around Chinatown for whatever cute New Year desserts we could find and had dinner at Madame Vo BBQ. It was really nice to spend time with them as we prepare to travel together next month to take on the runDisney Princess Half Marathon weekend together. I feel like it was symbolic of our year to come for 2020, more sister time and bonding.
I do want to expand on these traditions and one year prepare and host a New Year dinner with my family instead of going out to eat. I love eating out because the prep and cleanup is taken care of, but I also love a home cooked meal better. I haven’t had a big Asian sit down dinner at home in a while so maybe I’ll make this a goal for another year. I can do Thanksgiving just fine so I really should start learning to cook for my own cultural traditions as well. I also want to visit Vietnam again one year but I want to also experience Tet celebrations and how they celebrate there. I always hear from my parents and their friends about how beautiful, festive and fun it is. And next year, Valentine’s Day falls around the same time as New Year and Disneyland California is the only park that celebrates both holidays with decorations and food and all! I want to see if I can make it there next year as well. It’s funny how Disneyland is a much smaller park than Disney World but they always do the holiday celebrations better. More signs pointing me to the West Coast move.
Another thing I love about it is the folklore and the zodiac signs and all the different things about them. The Chinese New Year is based on a different zodiac than the astrological signs, with 12 different animals cycling through to represent each new year. The order is based on old Chinese mythology, where 12 animals were selected for a great race. This year is the year of the rat, which is the first animal in order of the zodiac. How did the rat win the race? By being a rat! He was cunning enough to hitch a ride on the ox and ran forward at the finish line.
I was born in the sign of the dragon. Why did the dragon not win, you ask? There are two different versions of the story; one version says the dragon stopped to help put out a fire at a nearby village and saved the people, another version says the dragon was in first place and got cocky, and decided to take a nap (like the tortoise and the hare story) and woke up in time to make it as 5th place. Which story is right? Being a dragon myself, I can tell you both versions are right, hahaha. I do find it in my nature to help others when I can, but I do tend to overestimate myself sometimes when I think I’m ahead. Hence my procrastination skills are always followed by my superpowers where I come through and do ultimately complete my tasks on time, albeit last minute. Although I AM working on it! Last year I told myself to finish my pharmacy CEs early and I stuck to that goal instead of having to complete them last minute like last renewal period. I also started being better at packing for traveling and doing it a week ahead of time instead of the night before. Baby steps.
Along with the different animals, there are different elements in each sign as well. You can look up your individual birth year to find out your elemental animal. For my year, I’m an Earth dragon in the zodiac.
While they’ll be trying to become better with every day that passes, the Earth dragon will manage to reinvent themselves every step of the way.
I feel like I've been reinventing myself since I was 5.😅 When I was in elementary school, I wanted to fit in, being the only Asian kid in school, so I tried hard to learn the language, speak with no accent and dress like my peers. When I was in high school, I wanted to be popular, so I tried too hard to make myself likable and friendly. When I got to college, I realized I didn't really care what people thought of me, so I finally became more myself, loud, outspoken and "brazen" as I was labeled by two faced friends. I dialed it back when I graduated as I had to become more "professional" for the working world. But as I grew into adulthood, I learned to balance myself, being who I really am, and pulling back when necessary for certain situations and circumstances. But that's the power of the Earth dragon. Perhaps the greatest risk any of us will ever take is to be seen as we really are.
What sign are you? Do you think you match the traits associated with it? I don’t fully believe in everything I read about zodiac signs and horoscopes but I still find them fun to read and it’s always interesting to see how some things do line up. Although I do find that I do match up to a lot of the characteristics of a dragon as well as a Scorpio. For the year of the rat, the dragon is supposed to have overall improved good fortune and I’m really hoping that means no financial curveballs this year. But with it, means I also have to stop pushing the envelope and spending frivolously. I’m going to try and make it a goal to travel a little less, save a little more and if I do travel, I need to stick to a budget and no more YOLO-ing. I met the YOLO quota for the decade from the last 3-4 years traveling. Time to buckle up and work on being more smart with my money. I know I can do it, I just have to learn discipline with money as much as I learned to discipline my health and fitness in the last 2 years.
