January 28 marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year 4714 and
the ensuing 15-day Spring Festival. The event is celebrated across the globe
wherever large Chinese populations are found, including Mainland China, Hong
Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Viet
Nam, Mauritius, and the Philippines. Some observations of the holiday give up
to a week off from work.
Celebrations traditionally run from the evening preceding
the first day, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first calendar
month. The first day of the New Year falls on the new moon between 21 January
and 20 February. Popularly, following the practice of naming years for the
succession of animals of the Chinese Zodiac, this is the Year of the Rooster,
but it is more accurately the Red Fire Chicken because the stem-branch of the
Chinese character is female
In agricultural China, as with many farming cultures, a
winter celebration prior to the beginning of the season was an appropriate time
to evoke the deities’ aid in procuring a good harvest. Today, businesses of all
kinds hope that the celebrations will usher in profits and success. Traditionally
this is a time for cleaning, to remove the remnants of lingering bad luck,
visiting family, paying off debts and generally starting the year fresh.
The most popular legend about the origin of the New Year
celebration centers on the village of Taohua (Peach Blossoms) once plagued by the
horned monster Nian. Nian lived at the bottom of the sea, but once a year, on
Spring Festival Eve it came out to eat the village’s crops, livestock and even villagers,
especially children.
One year, all the villagers had decided to flee into the
hills to escape the beast when, unexpectedly, an old man dressed as a beggar,
grey beard fluttering the breeze, appeared before the villagers. He appeared
quite insane, but one old woman took pity and gave him something to eat. He
told her if she would ley him stay under roof he would rid them of the beast.
She tried to convince him to flee, but he insisted on staying. That night the old
man hung red banners and set off firecrackers.
On the stroke of midnight, the monster Nian rushed into the
village, but immediately found that there was something different in the
village. He quivered all over on seeing the red paper glued on the door of the
old woman’s house. Nian scowled at the house for a moment and howled fiercely
to throw himself at the house. Approaching the door gate, he heard fireworks
exploding. At that moment, the old beggar burst through the door laughing and
dressed in red. Nian turned pale with fright and ran off into the night.
That morning, when the returning villagers saw nothing had
been destroyed, they realized the old man had been a deity, come to save them. When
they saw the banners and heard the last of the firecrackers exploding they knew
what they had to do to keep Nian away. After that, when the New Year was about
to come, the villagers would wear red clothes, hang red lanterns, and light
firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the
village again.
The custom spread far and wide and became a grand traditional
celebration of the "Passing of Nian" (Guo Nian—"Nian" in
Chinese means "year.”)
One of the most well known events celebrating the Chinese
New Year is the parade in San Francisco, which takes place this year on
Saturday, February 11. More than 100 groups will participate in what is
recognized as the largest celebration of its kind outside of Asia. Held for
approximately two weeks following the first day of the Chinese New Year, it
combines elements of the Chinese Spring Festival with a typical American parade.
The festival dates to 1858. At the time, Chinese Community
leaders wanted to share their culture with those who were unfamiliar with it
and decided to employ a favorite American tradition: the Parade. Nothing like
it had ever been done in their native China. They invited a variety of other
groups from the city to participate, and they marched down what today are Grant
Avenue and Kearny Street carrying colorful flags, banners, lanterns, and drums
and firecrackers.
The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the
Reunion Dinner, named as "Nian Ye Fan." A dish consisting of special
meats is served at the tables of Chinese families, as a main course for the
dinner and offering for the New Year. In northern China, it is customary to make
dumplings (jiaozi) after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize
wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese sycee (the gold ingot once used
as currency).
By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a
glutinous new year cake (niangao) and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives
and friends in the coming days of the new year. Niángāo [Pinyin] literally
means "new year cake" but also sounds like a phrase translated as
"increasingly prosperous, year in year out."
Technically, the Chinese calendar uses not a lunar year, but
a lunisolar year; months reflect the lunar cycle, but then intercalary months
(e.g. "second Adar" in the Hebrew calendar) are added to bring the calendar
year into synchronization with the solar year. Some examples are the Chinese,
Hindu, and Thai calendars.
Lunisolar calendars have a variable number of months in a
year. The reason for this is that a solar year is not equal in length to an
exact number of lunar cycles, so without the addition of intercalary months the
seasons would drift each year. To synchronize the lunar and solar years, a
thirteen-month year is needed every two or three years.
Upcoming events:
South Bay Chinese Club, Citizens for Better Community, and
Fremont Main Library will sponsor the celebration of the Chinese Lunar Year
4714 with entertainment and crafts at the Fremont Main Library on Saturday,
January 21, 2017
2017 Chinese New Year Program
Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017
1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Fremont Main Library
2400 Stevenson Blvd, Fremont
(510) 745-1421
www.aclibrary.org
Free
Lunar New Year is a time of family reunion, food, music and
dance. Children can practice black ink calligraphy and also create their own
paper lanterns for the Year of the Rooster in the Art Studio.
Lunar New Year Celebration
Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Habitot Children’s Museum
2065 Kittredge St, Berkeley
www.habitot.org
(510) 647-1111
$10 per person
Fremont Senior Center Chinese Senior Club celebrates the
Chinese New Year! Join us for a delicious lunch expertly prepared by our chefs,
Jeff and David. A special New Year performance will be held in Wing A this
year. Come by at 11 a.m. to enjoy the festivities. Buy your ticket in advance;
lunch usually sells out.
Fremont Senior Center – Chinese Senior Club
Chinese New Year Celebration
Thursday, Jan. 26th, 2017
11 a.m.
Fremont Senior Center
40086 Paseo Padre Pkwy, Fremont
(510) 790-6600 for tickets and prices
The Vietnamese Tet Festival takes place this year at the
Santa Clara County Fairgrounds
Vietnamese Tet Festival
Saturday – Sunday, Jan. 28 –29, 2017
10 a.m. – 10 p.m both days
Santa Clara County Fairgrounds
344 Tully Rd, San Jose
(408) 387-4470
www.tetvietnamsj.com
http://thefairgrounds.org/event/tet-festival/
The San Francisco Parade Preview is sponsored by Southwest
Airlines. This mini procession is a much smaller version of the enormous parade
to come. It might be just the thing for people hoping to see a few dragons,
giant puppets, and dancers without all the big crowds.
San Francisco Lunar New Year Parade Preview
Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
St. Mary’s Square
433 Kearny St San Francisco
Free
Come and celebrate Lunar New Year with the Oakland Asian
Cultural Center! There will be cultural performances such as Chinese dance,
traditional music, lion dancing, and much more! We have activities for kids
such as art and crafts, book readings, and balloon animals! Also, there will be
a demonstration by Jimmy Zhang on the art of food and fruit carving. Join us
for a day filled with excited and fun! Admission is free and everyone is
welcome.
Lunar New Year Celebration
Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017
11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 9th St, Oakland
(510) 637-0461
Crystal Lee info@oacc.cc
Free
Roll in the Year of the Rooster with talented dancers and
musicians at the Asian Art Museum’s annual Lunar New Year Celebration. Students
from the Chinese American International School and China Dance School and Theatre
present traditional and modern music, as well as dances from China, to kick off
the New Year.
Lunar New Year Performances
Saturday, February 4, 2017
10:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Asian Art Museum
200 Larkin St, San Francisco
(415) 581-3500
www.asianart.org
Sponsored by Southwest Airlines and the Chinese Chamber of
Commerce, the Chinese New Year parade is a big event and goes on past dark. The
parade route is from Market and Second Street to Kearny and Jackson. $30 will
buy you a seat on the bleachers (Kearny Street, between Sacramento &
California)
San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival & Parade
Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017
5:15 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Market and Second Streets, San Francisco
(415) 982-3000
http://www.chineseparade.com/
South Bay Chinese Club invites you, your family, and your
friends to join us to welcome the Year of the Rooster. As always, you can
expect our ever popular raffle with oodles of prizes!
2017 Chinese New Year Dinner
Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017
5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Mayflower Restaurant
34348 Alvarado Niles Rd., Union City
RSVP no later than February 15,
$30; $15 children 5-11, Free for charter members
http://www.southbaychineseclub.org/2017-cyn-dinner-1
Join the Oakland Museum of California (OCMA) for the 15th
annual Lunar New Year celebration, a fortune-filled family-friendly event to
welcome in the Year of the Rooster and celebrate Valentine’s Day. Enjoy an
array of Asian traditions in arts, crafts, food, demonstrations, live music,
dance, martial arts, and so much more. Explore connections between the diverse
Asian cultures represented in California, including Chinese, Korean,
Vietnamese, Japanese, Mongolian and other Asian cultures.
Lunar New Year Celebration
Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017
12:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
OMCA
1000 Oak St. Oakland
(510) 318-8400
http://museumca.org/
$15.95/adult; $10.95 student/senior; $6.95 youth (9–17)
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