“Mum! I’m going to shoot off some firecrackers and do some fireworks with my friends now!”
“Come back for the delicious food that your grandpa and grandma are making now when you are done,” my mum said.
As a kid, one of the most exciting things about celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year was setting off fireworks with my neighbors. It’s not uncommon to see a group of boys and couple girls making a circle on the street and pressing lighters. During the daytime, we set off the firecrackers to raise excitement in our community, but when it got darker, every child changed to fireworks to release color into the sky.
Before I came to the U.S, I did not know that people in western countries referred to this holiday as Chinese Lunar New Year. In China we call this holiday “the Spring Festival,” and pronounce it “Chun Jie” in Mandarin. The largest and the most important holiday in China, Chun Jie symbolizes solidarity, prosperous life, and hope for each family.
Many people who chose to leave their villages and go to big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen or Guangzhou to work really hard for a better job and life seldom go back to their place of birth, but they would spare no efforts to go back home during Chunjie because it was the best time to show their respects to family and tell them that they earned a lot of money and a better life. And many Chinese students in this country wish deeply that they could take the time to join them. For most of them, the Lunar Year is much more important than the regular New Year or other holidays.
It’s not easy to make the journey home for Spring Festival. In fact, college students who must travel home suffer through Chunyun, which means “Spring Festival season traffic.” this phenomenon usually begins weeks before Lunar New Year and ends one month later. This year passengers took three billion trips during Chunyun. We usually make a joke about Chunyun and call it is the biggest periodical migration for humans around the world. Yet everyone suffers it with joy because they are truly eager to go back home.
The Spring Festival occurs on a different date every year due to the varying lunar calendar. This year it took place on Feb. 8. A week before, “the Little Spring Festival” begins, when people start to clean every corner in their home, decorate and buy new clothes.
As the only child in my family, I had to help my family to clean the house, go shopping with my mum and celebrate the Special Festival with my parents and grandparents. If I refused, I would be considered an inconsiderate child . On the eve of Chun jie, my family visits my father’s parents home to celebrate together with my father’s sibling families and help them to cook different foods. Each family has different preferences, but dumplings always appear on the dinner table.
After we finished our dinner, everyone sits together and watches CCTV (China Central Television) New Year’s Gala (the most watched television show in the world), as 500-800 million other people watch it at same time around the world.
In ancient China, parents did not want evils to scare their children while they were sleeping, so they always put a copper coin on their bed to keep the evils away. Today, the first thing children ask from their parents when they wake up on Chunjie morning is for the “lucky red envelopes.” which contain a lot of cash from parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts.
How much lucky money the children get sometimes depends on the family’s social status. Some wealthy parents would give their child $2000 and $1000 to their nephews and nieces in one lucky envelope. In many families, the money increases as the children grow. The average luck money that Chinese children receive during the holiday season is about $850.
Another big tradition during that night is the fireworks. Yet the New Year’s Gala has not finished, everyone brings a lighter and carries all of the fireworks they have outside to set off. We believe ring out the Old Year and ring in the New Year is very necessary we believe the noise can scare the evils away and we do not want evils to stay with us for the new year. Fireworks also bring joy and good luck to people in the new year.
The Spring Festival usually lasts 15-days. On the second day every family visits the child’s grandparents from the maternal side.
Now, I am 22 years old, and these traditions seem further and further away from me because I chose to study abroad in the U.S. This year when my family members were celebrating the Lunar New Year, I was writing my paper and preparing for the exams. I avoided calling home on Lunar New Year’s eve, not because I was too busy working on my assignments, but because my grandma misses me so much and she cries when she hears my voice. The next day, my mum sent me a picture of the lucky red envelope that my grandma had prepared for me.
For the 300,000 Chinese International students studying in the U.S, missing the celebration of the Spring Festival is a very heartbreaking thing. Because this is a very meaningful holiday for the family, a time for every Chinese to release the pressure from their jobs and share happiness. No one’s face would show a little annoyance if they had the time to visit with family.
Jian Kang, ’18, an economics major, is from southern China, and in his second year studying in the U.S. The only thing he wants for Chinese Lunar New Year, he said, is a reunion with his family. “Last year was my first year to miss the Spring Festival in 23 years,” Kang said.“It used to be the happiest day of the year for me, but now the celebration of Chinese Lunar New Year became a moment that I miss my family.”
“Before I came to the U.S, I did not know what it felt like to miss the Spring Festival. But after two years of missing it in the U.S, I felt too oppressive and I really missed my family,” Sixiang Chen, ’19, said, almost crying. “During my third year of high school in the U.S, I could not endure anymore, and I went to the headmaster and ask for a 10-day break for all of the Chinese students. I told them that the Spring Festival is a really, really, really huge holiday in China. It’s same as Christmas in the U.S.” The headmaster agreed with Chen’s suggestions and also approved the Chinese Lunar New Year into the school’s calendar.
After studying in the U.S for almost 6 years, I finally realized going back home and celebrating the Spring Festival with parents and grandparents means much more than going back home for summer. We care about this more than any other things while we are studying in the other country.
Sometimes, I even consider giving up my GPA to exchange a week off for just going back to say "Guo Nian Hao/ Happy New Year" to my family. As an International student, who is also the only child in my family, missing the celebration of the Spring Festival is not about the lucky red envelope, setting off the fireworks, or the new clothes anymore. Nothing would compare to a short moment of reunion with family.
