How I Celebrated the Spring Festival with My Family The Spring Festival is the most important celebration in Chinese culture, and my favorite time of year! It's a special occasion when families come together to spend quality time with one another after a long year of hard work. This year's Spring Festival was extra meaningful because we got to reunite with relatives we hadn't seen in a long time due to the pandemic. Let me tell you all about the wonderful two-week holiday I just had! The preparations actually began a couple weeks before the festival itself. My mom spent several days doing a thorough cleaning of our whole house. She said it was to sweep away any bad luck and make way for incoming good fortune. My brother and I had to help out too, which to be honest, I didn't really enjoy at the time. But it felt satisfying once everything was sparkling clean.
Next, we decorated our home with lots of red trimmings and beautiful couplets with poetic writings. We hung lanterns, strung up red banners with lucky sayings, and put out a small dish of sweet foods as an offering to our ancestors. Red is the main color
because it symbolizes vitality, luck, and scaring away evil spirits. I love how festive and vibrant our home looks during this time! As the main eve drew closer, we started getting ready for the huge reunion dinner. This is the most important meal of the whole year. My dad spent days in the kitchen preparing a gigantic feast with all of our family's traditional dishes. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water - steamed fish, dumplings, spring rolls, sweet rice balls, and so much more! We had to set up a extra tables and chairs to accommodate everyone who would be coming over.
Finally, the day of the reunion dinner arrived. Our
grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all gathered together at our house. As the eldest members of the family came through the door, my siblings and I greeted them with respectful bows and got down on our knees to receive a red envelope filled with cash. This is called \"ya sui qian\" and it's one of the best parts of the festival for us kids! The red envelopes are given as tokens of good luck and blessings.
Once everyone arrived, we could start feasting on the incredible spread my parents had labored over. We had so many delectable dishes I didn't even know where to begin. I just stuffed myself with whatever looked most appetizing at the
moment. While we ate, we carried on the tradition of staying up well past midnight to welcome the new year. The adults sanitized the feast by burning bamboo sticks and hanging up fire crackers. The loud pops are supposed to drive away evil spirits. I couldn't wait to light some of those myself later on!
After ringing in the new year, I slept in late the next morning. When I finally rolled out of bed, I opened up my hong bao (red envelope) gifts to count my cash. Not a bad little fortune! Then we all sat down again for another huge feast. This time it was foods like long noodles for longevity, whole fish for prosperity, and sweet sticky rice balls for sustenance and togetherness. We're not supposed to use knives or scissors on New Year's Day because it's bad luck to cut things. Could lead to cutting off fortune!
The next highlight was getting to set off fireworks and firecrackers in the backyard. Us kids took turns lighting them and watching them explode in a cacophony of noise and color. Some sparkled up in the air, some whizzed around on the ground, and the biggest ones were loud cannon-like booms accompanied by vibrant bursts. Hopefully all those bad spirits were good and scared off by then!
For the next couple weeks, we just relaxed, ate lots more delicious meals, and spent quality time together. We played poker games for fun and eggs, hit the outdoor markets, and my uncle took us downtown to see the festival temple fairs. Those were a blast - with dragons weaving through crowds, acrobats performing tricks, vendors selling trinkets and snacks, and carnival games to play. Definitely my favorite part!
One memorable night, we enjoyed a tanghulu treat of candied fruits on a skewer that's a must-have during the festivities. As we munched on the sticky glazed strawberries and lychees, we watched an amazing performance troupe putting on an outdoor dragon dance show with twirling ribbons and elaborate costumes. The massive dragon puppet snaked through the crowded plaza in a mesmerizing choreographed routine accompanied by rhythmic drumming. So colorful and lively! Before we knew it, the holiday was coming to an end. On the final night, we celebrated one last time by carrying lanterns up a hillside with all our relatives. We released the lanterns into the night sky and made wishes for good luck and fortune. As the warm glowing lanterns slowly ascended and twinkled against the stars, it filled me with contentment and gratitude for our rich cultural traditions.
With the Spring Festival over, it was back to regular routines. But I'll always cherish the wonderful memories from this celebration - reconnecting with my extended family, feasting on delicious foods, experiencing the vibrant festivities, and learning more about my heritage. Though I look forward to the holiday each year, this Spring Festival was extra special after being kept apart for so long. I can't wait until the next one rolls around!
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