Lunar New Year is an annual holiday celebrated by my family. This year, it’s the Year of the Pig. It’s the one day that we can all come together and forget our differences. We eat at a round table surrounded on both sides by family. Dishes of authentic Chinese food are whisked out of the kitchen and onto the dining room table. There would be roasted duck, snails, squid, all sorts of seafood, noodles, vegetables and more. Sometimes our family has a hard time getting along but New Years is always the one holiday that we can gather and make up with one another. I don’t know what is in the air but we seem to be able to breathe easier, give and receive with open arms. The red envelopes are the children’s favorite part. It is still mine. Hongbao holds money and is added to our savings. When my siblings and I would open our hongbaos it would be like Christmas morning, the excitement to see how much we got this year.

Hongbao is a traditional gift given to family members during Lunar New Year. Lunar New Year lasts 15 days and it’s a celebration of family and friends. Hongbao is a red envelope that is eye-catching and colorful. The envelope is red and gold, which is reflective in the light. There are red flowers in the left upper corner and bottom right of the envelope. The golden characters in the middle come off the page and has texture, so it looks almost 3D. The hongbao is given out during New Years, birthdays, weddings or other celebrations. The surface of the hongbao is smooth and the flowers and vines have many details. Sometimes I trace the outline of the red flowers and the golden vines when I think about my family.

Lunar New Year is celebrated differently in every household, but in mine, my mom always makes offerings to Buddha and our ancestors. She lays out all sorts of food such as hard boiled eggs, duck, chicken, fish, oranges, pork, and two candles with fifteen mini cups of wine. The wine symbolizes the 15 days of celebration. On top of every food item, there is a red, circular paper with a chinese character on it that symbolizes the offering. Then one by one, every family member must take two lighted candles and stand outside and pray to the Buddha. I always thank him for my parents, my education and my friends. I alway ask for a bright future full of happiness and full health. Then we burned fake paper money in a handmade fire pit. This fake paper money is called joss paper. The paper money can have red, gold or silver decorations. We must hold them in our palm while using our other hand (in a fist form) to spin the napkins in a spiral. My mom says that doing this gives the money some luck. Then we toss them into the fire pit as we bless our ancestors full health and prosperity in the afterlife. Lunar New Year is about starting the new year with a clean slate.

One of my memories from Lunar New Year is when my mom almost burned the kitchen down because she decided to do the blessing indoors. It was windy and cold the week before Lunar New Year and my mom always does a blessing and offering the week before, the day of and every day after the New Year. I was doing homework that day upstairs and all of the sudden, the fire alarm in the house started blaring and I smelled smoke. I ran downstairs to the kitchen and I slide open our wooden door and a huge flame shot out of the doorway. I jumped back and my mom screamed for me to close the door and yelled at my brother to get some water. Eventually the flame was put out, but from that day on, we had a burned mark on the kitchen floor, which was made out of wood!