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 Lunar new year is a special occasion in my family. We gather with family and friends to celebrate the start of the new year and eat good food. Food that all symbolizes different things for the new year. My favorite is gao, a sticky sweet rice cake, representing growth and prosperity in the new year. I'm also excited to learn about what’s to come in the year of the snake for a rabbit like me. 

  Lunar New Year Celebration is a new event for me in my life. Growing up in the Bible Belt and basically being the ONLY Korean, Asian, within a minimum 1 hr drive in all directions, I really did not know anything about m heritage and culture. The Only thing available at the time I grew up was the Encyclopedia. Upon moving to Eugene OR, I made friends with a Chinese family, that knew all the holidays and everything Asian that I did not know. I am learning the story of the Lunar New Year and what it means to others and their family traditions.  

For the weeks leading up to Lunar New Year my mom would gather all of the foods needed to give us good luck.  On new years eve we would set up a table with all of the foods and offer it to the ancestors.  Then we would eat vegetarian food on new year's day.  The second day of the new year is when we would eat all the food we offered to our ancestors.  Some of my favorite are as follows:

Fish - increase in prosperity

Whole Chicken - luck and wholeness

Citrus Fruits and Apples - luck and prosperity

Pork - abundance

Chinese New Year Cake - increased position

Lettuce - becoming wealthy

Celery - working or studying hard

Tray of Togetherness - good luck and fortune

 The most vivid memory of celebrating Lunar New Year was when our family lived in Hong Kong. I was in elementary school at the time. Water was always in short supply in Hong Kong. Some mornings, I would have the responsibility of taking a couple of water buckets and lining up to get the day’s supply of fresh water at the public faucet. Bath water was conserved to flush the toilet or mop the floor. There was a public restroom in the neighborhood and trucks would come by to pick up the human waste there and at homes as well. The restroom was a simple concrete building with a trench in the middle. During New Year's time, firecrackers were plentiful. Afterall, what would kids do with all that lucky money. Children (my brother and I included) were known to light firecrackers and throw them into the public restroom, knowing that it was occupied. Sometimes we use a section of metal water pipe and launch the firecrackers like bazookas into the restroom from afar to avoid detection. One can imagine the loud boom and the shocked occupant.