The past weekend was the biggest festival for Chinese and Taiwanese, and it was my first time to celebrate this holiday without my family. The tradition in my family is that my brother, sister, and I would design a hide-and-seek game (usually looking for hidden red envelopes stuffed with lucky money) for the whole family to play in our 5-floor house after the reunion dinner on Chinese New Year’s Eve. However, this year I am far away from home and could not join the brainstorming and designing process. To get rid of homesickness, I came up with the idea of organizing a Chinese New Year Event and playing some fun games related to the festival with all international students living in NoMa Housing Facility!
Everyone brought some foods for the potluck, so we had Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican, Brazilian, Korean, Japanese, and American cuisines. It was great to taste dishes from different cultures! I also tried to introduce some foods Taiwanese eat and things we do during Chinese New Year vacation, like we usually have dumplings because the shape looks like ancient gold money and symbolizes wealth and fortune.
Or customs such as, we usually go to temples to pray for good luck for the coming year the next day after Chinese New Year, accompany our mothers back to their parents’ house for a visit on the second day, and on the fifth day, we would worship Chinese God of Wealth in the hope of earning more money and getting more business deals.
To make the event more appealing to Chinese New Year’s traditions, I brought some brushes, ink, and squared colored papers (unfortunately, pink and orange were the colors I can find closer to red) for everyone to write a spring couplet for their words of the year.
Another most important thing on Chinese New Year is to give out red envelopes stuffed with lucky money! Although this year I was no longer the receiver but a giver myself, seeing people became joyful when they got a red packet for their correct answers of Chinese customs made me feel happy as well.
Although I was far far far away from my family, I felt this Chinese New Year was especially unique and meaningful. It was so great to meet so many new friends and have fun together!
Yating Chan
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