why Chinese New Year is kinda like Christmas.

Natallie is half Chinese and this weekend since it was Chinese New Year, it was a great opportunity to teach her a little bit about her Asian heritage. Not that I am very connected to my motherland and tranditions of China but Chinese New year is fun, it's kinda like Christmas. If you don't know about Chinese New Year, here is how Chinese New Year is like Christmas...

 

#1. Instead of the Santa Parade, there's the traditional Lion Dance. Don't leave our milk and cookies for the lion, he apparently prefers lettuce instead. Natallie at first was a bit freaked out by the loud drums but then she soon started clapping along with the crowd. If you had never seen a lion dance, you should watch this video of what Natallie watched with great delight at Lougheed Mall on Saturday.

                                   
                                   
#2 Instead of saying "Merry Christmas" or the politically correct version "Happy Holidays", you say "Sun Leen Fai Lok" (Happy New Year) or "Gung Hay Fat Choy" (wishing you good fortune)

#3 Instead of turkey or ham, you go out with all your relatives for "toon leen fan" which is 10 course Chinese feast of things like Peiking duck, lobster and crab, honey garlic spareribs and lettuce rice wraps. (And just like Christmas dinner, you want to wear those looser pants). Natallie ate with great delight!

                                      
                            


#4 Instead of decorating in tinsel and lights, "real" Asian people (i.e., not me) decorate their house with red firecracker thingys and the word "fok" which means good fortune. They purposely put the word upside so it "pours" the good fortune onto their house (if it were only that easy to win Lotto 649, I'm sure more people would be doing that).

#5 You get dressed up in your new clothes but instead of ugly Christmas sweaters, you wear traditional Chinese clothes. At least for girls and women, the high neck line and silk fabrics is quite pretty (just steer clear of the ones that got bedazzled too much).

Love the way the dress highlights her little pot belly

Natallie with "PoPo" in their Chinese New year outfits

#6 And my pesonal favourite growing up as a Chinese kid, instead of wrapped presents under the tree, kids get red pockets with cash from their parents (no disapointment with another pair of socks). To be specific, the parents just don't give the kids the red envelopes of money, the children are suppose to "bai leen", which means go to your parents and say nice things and wish good things upon them and then they recieve in return CASH!  This year my parents gave Natallie (and us) Winnie the Pooh and Minnie Mouse red pockets, definately not traditional but pretty cute.

                                                 
All in all, Chinese New Year is pretty much like any other holiday, it's about spending time with the people you love and being thankful for all the blessings you have. So I'm glad that I got to show Natallie a little bit of her Chinese side and glad that her not-so-Asian Dad can teach her about other things. There is no official Mennonite holiday is there? Maybe Simon will teach Natallie about the importance of the Canucks winning the Stanley Cup then....

 

 

 

SUN LEEN FAI LOK!