HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

Another cycle of the lunar calendar is upon us! This year is the year of the horse. That means my cousin turns 24, as she was born in the year of the metal horse. For New Year’s Eve I invited my family over to have a new year’s dinner and now I am stuffed. I feel like I will still be full when I wake up. The food was so good. Sarah cooked 1 dish, I cooked 2 dishes, my uncle brought a dish, and my mom cooked 4. We had more than enough food for the 6 of us.

Afterwards, my dad unpacked his chromecast and installed it, updated it, and played with it. I was very skeptical when I got mine from Katrina’s dad, but it’s actually been a lot of fun to play with and mess around with. It’s been especially great at parties.

Some traditions I learned today:

• You are supposed to eat something green and also a lot of radishes. I forgot why. I’ll update it later
• Everyone at the table is supposed to eat at least 1 bite of rice, because like the rice it will help all of us stick together.
• You eat Nian Gao, 年糕(Year Cake),  to bring you good luck. It is considered good luck to eat nian gao during this time, because “nian gao” is a homonym for “higher year.” The Chinese word 粘 (nián), meaning “sticky”, is identical in sound to 年, meaning “year”, and the word 糕 (gāo), meaning “cake” is identical in sound to 高, meaning “high or tall”. As such, eating nian gao has the symbolism of raising oneself taller in each coming year – 年年高升. (Yes I copied that part from Wikipedia)

Was a great night, and I had a lot of fun with my family. My coworkers are gonna have a lot of leftovers to eat with me tomorrow for lunch.

-Evilmanta