New Year traditions

I’ve been thinking about cultural traditions and how they get passed down over the generations. I’m usually surprised at the fact that some cultural practices continue to be maintained, even if the older generations don’t provide any particular or overt teaching about why they’re done. Still, I think it is undeniable that cultures change with each generation – even if the change can sometimes be very gradual – and I’d also argue that frequently the ideal is quite different from the reality.

Of course, I am just basing my observations on direct experience – my family’s in the first instance, and from what I’ve observed of others around me. (Feel free to comment if your observations or experiences differ!) With this recent New Year celebration, it was quite interesting to see what we did and did not do, and to observe the different expectations and behaviours of the different generations.

I think I’ve mentioned that Chinese New Year is a somewhat low-key celebration here. But don’t get me wrong, despite the relative quietness of the celebration, I still enjoy it, and the things we do to mark the occasion. We usually only do a few things. One of the most important is dinner on the eve. This is always a huge meal, usually massively overloaded with meats. This year we had Macau-style turkey, roast pork, roast duck, steamed fish, chap chye (lit. “mixed vegetables” that apart from more common vegetables like cabbage and carrots, includes a type of fungus called fa cai, which sounds like the words for “get rich”), a green salad and a potato salad, with rice as a mere accompaniment.

Some of us give red packets 红包 ang pow (Hokkien for ‘red packet’; in Mandarin hong bao), small bright red envelopes with a small sum of money in them. The Wikipedia article on red packets gives a neat overview of this practice.

This year was the first time M and I have had to play the role of ang pow givers (we have always been receivers in previous years!). Our status has changed because we are now married and considered adults – and only ‘adults’ have the responsibility of giving ang pow. Parents give to their unmarried children, and in our family, we married children are also expected to give ang pow to our parents and grandparents as a gesture of respect and good wishes. (I say “in our family” because I am not sure if this is done in all Chinese families.)

Mum was greatly amused when she reminded CherryRipe and I that parents should really receive more in their ang pow than what unmarried siblings receive. (This is the reason we had to go to the bank last week – to ensure we had enough money and in the correct denominations! – to give away. It can get quite expensive.) The amount you give in a red packet is entirely up to you, of course, but there are a few conventions: you avoid giving odd amounts – even amounts are ‘better’, and you try to give certain amounts, ‘lucky’ numbers like eight (or eighty or eight hundred) dollars (the number ‘eight’ å…« ba being a ‘good’ number because it sounds somewhat similar to the word for ‘prosperity’ 发 fa).

This practice is changing for us – even my grandmother, who you’d expect to maintain the cultural practices avidly, is gving odd amounts in her ang pow these days! Her reason: “I can’t get to the bank, and coins are heavy.” The smallest acceptable even denomination would be six, but the one and two dollar denominations in Australia are coins. Four is no good, because of the association ‘four’ å›› si has with the word ‘death’ æ­» si and two, well, two is such a paltry sum!

The other practice that is associated with the New Year for me is that of visiting our relatives to pay our respects. We did this yesterday – went to three homes to say Happy New Year. Chinese society is very hierarchical – the junior visit the senior (and sometimes the senior repay this ‘respect’ with ang pow, but even if you are not eligible to receive red packets, you are still meant to visit). We still have one more aunt to visit, but the New Year celebration lasts two weeks, so there’s still time.

And how’s this for ever-changing culture? We also gave ang pow to M’s parents and granddad. Even though they (being Dutch) don’t celebrate the lunar new year, it was still nice to give them each an ang pow and to wish them a happy new year and to express our gratitude and love for them. M’s granddad seemed particularly pleased with his red packet, and I think M liked being able to make the gesture, too. I think this is a new cultural practice we will maintain.

Categories: ChineseNewYear, family, culture