Fireworks, Family and Favourite Foods: Bringing in the New Year
Written by Jiangsiqin Lin and Keng Keng
We’re at the end of another busy week at MILK, with the usual conversation, crafting and of course, cooking and sharing loads of delicious meals among our pals from the Govanhill community and all over Glasgow. And we’re also at the end of a busy year, as we say goodbye to the Year of the Rabbit and welcome in the Year of the Dragon. To mark the occasion, we are presenting two beautiful pieces from MILK friends, talking about memories of Lunar New Years gone by.
Chinese New Years Eve
By Jiangsiqin Lin
I can't recall anything very deep or specific about New Year's Eve, only some childhood memories of the smell of food and the countdown to the New Year’s Eve Party on the TV with the sound of fireworks going off outside the window.
Before I went to high school and moved to the big city, every year on Lunar New Year's Eve, which we called Chuxi (除夕), the whole family would gather in the countryside at the elders' house to have dinner together. Chuxi (除夕) was a much more important event for us than New Year's Eve, which was the last day of the calendar year, or even the first day of the new lunar year.
Unlike most Chinese families, I spent most of each year in my mother's family, to which we were more closely connected. Whereas most Chinese people would go to their father's family for the most important dinner, we would only go there for lunch or visit after the dinner was over.
My mother's family consisted of around 15 members, and due to the large number of people often everyone was busy all day preparing the dishes. Most of the women were responsible for cleaning the house and matching and preparing the children's new clothes to be worn on the first day of New Year's Day. The women would also arrange New Year decorations, such as chuang hua (窗花), which are a type of red paper cut-outs, pasted on the window panes and featuring traditional Chinese lucky motifs, and duilian (对联) a kind of two-line poem posted on the front door, written in calligraphy, based on praising spring and calling for good luck. We would always wait until the clock had just turned zero and the new year fireworks were set off to put our duilian (对联) on our door, and we children would rush out and set off all kinds of our own fireworks.
The men were in charge of cooking, because my grandpa and uncle used to be cooks, so they were mainly in charge of all the dishes that were difficult to make and handle, such as meat and fried foods. Because my hometown is in the south, we eat a food called "spring pancakes"(chunbing 春饼), which are similar to spring rolls but do not require deep-frying. Flour batter forms a very thin, translucent crust on a hot iron plate, which is then used to wrap special spring vegetables and meats, rolled up into long strips, and served as a starter. It is a quick and easy way for busy people to eat spring pancakes before dinner.
There was also food made from various types of meat, mainly pork and fish, mixed with chopped vegetables and deep fried in a pan with a spoon and hands, which was loved by almost all the women in our family! You can't imagine how many times the aroma of the meatballs (fritters 炸丸子）is amplified when they are deep fried, and if you wander round the neighbourhood the aroma of this food wafts out of the windows of almost every house.
During the day, all the ingredients are put into the wok for the next stage of preparation in the evening. The most common food in my house was steamed fish of various kinds, which was easily available and of excellent quality because we lived near the river; marinated meat of various kinds is stir-fried together with vegetables so that the savoury flavour mixes well with the vegetables and the freshness of the vegetables can be emphasised without any additional seasoning; and a piece of whole fish is kept for the rest of the meal, which is served together with other fish. After the meal, a whole fish will be kept, and other leftovers will be put back into the kitchen for preservation. We are not in a hurry to dispose of these leftovers and tend to save them for lunch the next day on the first day of the New Year, so we don't have to worry about wasting too much food, and we love the feeling of not having to worry about food shortages, it's a sign of abundance.
After the meal, there would be some traditional desserts and fruit, and family members would gather around the TV to watch the evening programmes while
playing some board games. When zero hour arrived everyone would go out to watch the fireworks and put up their duilian (对联). The adults give the younger family members money that they have already prepared in red paper bags (hongbao 红包), which is what I look forward to most every year, as I get to have a total amount of pocket money that is at my disposal!
Fireworks, Family and Favourite Foods: Bringing in the New Year in China
Written by Keng Keng
Happy Lunar New year! 龙年吉祥！
每逢佳节倍思亲。As a migrant, no matter how strong I am, the lunar new year can expose all the homesickness and nostalgia which I have been holding over many years. I moved to the UK 16 years ago from Yunnan, Southwest China. I have strong memories of celebrating lunar new year in Yunnan - the mixture of scents of home cooking and fireworks; the smoke from burning incense and candles which we offered to buddha, ancestors and relatives who passed away; the sight and smell of long pine needles covering the floor, with an array of small dishes of Yunnanese delicacies laid on top - 鸡鸭鱼肉，什锦凉米线，八宝饭，长菜汤，饵块、年糕、乳饼和乳扇 meat, fish, rice-noodle salad, eight treasure steamed rice, soups, rice cakes, Yunnanese cheeses. My cousins and I would perform New Year songs and dance wearing our new red clothes.
All the families get together for a New Year Eve feast 年夜饭, children receive red envelopes 压岁钱 and are allowed to light fireworks while the adults play Majiang 麻将, a traditional Chinese game with different symbols and words carved on small bamboo and bone tiles. My favourite fireworks were floating lanterns and parachutes! The most joyful moment for me was chasing the parachute-fireworks at the end of the sparks as they fell down from the night sky.
Apart from the central event of the extended family gathering together for a big meal, other rituals focus on remembering and embracing losses and grief from the past year - bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new. My grandpa used to burn a small bundle of Yunnan pine branches and draw the circles in the air around all the grandchildren while chanting and praying. This was in order to chase away all the worries and illness and bring us protection. The next morning, on New Year's day, before the sunrise we would climb up a mountain to visit an old temple, offering burning incense and prayers to the Buddha and all the spirits, hoping for blessings in the new year.
Last lunar new year we invited almost all of our friends in Glasgow to our home for dinner. Our little flat was so packed with all these people dressed in red and gold we were worried the floorboards wouldn’t be able to hold all of us. But we showed how much togetherness and warmth can fill an evening, and the new memories of lunar New Year here in Glasgow are now as joyful as my old memories of new year in Yunnan.
We also held a community celebration at Woodland Community Antiracist library. We made paper-cut decorations and wrote Chinese couplets which are traditionally placed either side of one’s front door. 春节剪纸和春联. We also played Yunnanese music and led a circle dance with all the guests.
This year we will also hold a similar celebration event at Woodland Community Antiracist library on Sunday 11th February from 11am-1pm.
2024 is the year of Wood Dragon - its boldness can demolish harmful energy - injustice, racism, violence, borders, occupation, genocide and war - bringing us collective power for transforming the world . It can support us in calling for a ceasefire and fighting for a truly liberated Palestine and liberation of all the colonised people in the world!
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